Climatology of Wave Breaking and Mixing in the Northern Hemisphere Summer Stratosphere

The cause of large zonal ozone variations observed by POAM II (Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement II) in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) summer stratosphere between 55N-65N and 20-30 km is investigated using the United Kingdom Meteorological Office stratospheric data set with time-mean anomalies removed. This study tests the hypothesis from Hoppel et al. 1999 that breaking of westward- propagating planetary waves in the region of maximum ozone variance (RMV) induces substantial meridional transport which is responsible for the observed ozone variance. EP-flux vectors show that wave activity propagates vertically from source regions in the lower midlatitude troposphere into the stratosphere and RMV during the NH summer. In the RMV, EP-flux divergence is clearly nonzero, which means the zonal- mean zonal flow is forced by waves in this region. Close examination of individual zonal wavenumber contributions to the climatological monthly-mean EP-flux divergence shows that wavenumbers 1-5 generally account for over 90% of the forcing of the zonal- mean flow in the RMV from June to August.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH is the author of 'Climatology of Wave Breaking and Mixing in the Northern Hemisphere Summer Stratosphere' with ISBN 9781423543756 and ISBN 1423543750.