Temperature tele­connections between the tropical and polar middle atmosphere in the Southern Hemisphere during the 2010 minor sudden stratospheric warming

Abstract

Southern Hemispheric (SH) sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) are rela-tively rare compared to their Northern Hemisphere counterparts. No study hasso far investigated the impacts of the SH minor SSWs on the tropical atmo-sphere and connection between the tropical and polar atmospheres. Here, weanalyze the MERRA-2 and ERA-interim datasets, and Microwave LimbSounder satellite temperature measurements to investigate the tropical andpolar atmosphere tele-connections during the SH minor SSW that occurred in2010. Our analysis shows the strong anti-correlation between the polar andtropical temperatures during the 2010 minor SSW in the stratosphere andmesosphere. This is the first observational study over the SH that reveals thetele-connection between the tropical and polar middle atmospheres throughthe temperature during a minor SSW. We verified this tele-connection, usingsimulations of the Ground-to-topside model of Atmosphere and Ionosphere forAeronomy (GAIA) model during the 2010 minor SSW. GAIA model simula-tions show the temperature anti-correlation between the tropical and polarmiddle atmosphere and zonal wind variations. The feature of meridional circu-lation changes was also observed during the SSW period. Hence, the presentstudy strongly suggests that even minor SSW in the SH can affect the meridio-nal circulation in the middle atmosphere via planetary wave activity.