Intra-annual Rossby waves destabilization as a potential driver of Low-Latitude Zonal Jets – Barotropic dynamics

At low latitudes in the ocean, the deep currents are shaped into narrow jets flowing eastward and westward, reversing periodically with latitude between 15°S and 15°N. These jets are present from the thermocline to the bottom. The energy sources and the physical mechanisms responsible for their formation are still debated and poorly understood. This study explores the role of the destabilization of intra-annual equatorial waves in the jets formation process, as these waves are known to be an important energy source at low latitudes. The study focuses particularly on the role of barotropic Rossby waves as a first step towards understanding the relevant physical mechanisms. It is shown from a set of idealized numerical simulations and analytical solutions that Non-Linear Triad Interactions (NLTI) play a crucial role in the transfer of energy towards jet-like structures (long waves with short meridional wavelengths) that induce a zonal residual mean circulation. The sensitivity of the instability emergence and the scale selection of the jet-like secondary wave to the forced primary wave is analyzed. For realistic amplitudes around 5-20 cm s−1, the primary waves that produce the most realistic jet-like structures are zonally-propagating intra-annual waves with periods between 60 and 130 days and wavelengths between 200 and 300 km. The NLTI mechanism is a first step towards the generation of a permanent jet-structured circulation, and is discussed in the context of turbulent cascade theories.

The climatology of the Brewer-Dobson circulation and the contribution of gravity waves

<p>The climatology of residual mean circulation – a main component of the Brewer–Dobson circulation – and the potential contribution of gravity waves (GWs) are examined for the annual mean state and each season in the whole stratosphere based on the transformed-Eulerian mean zonal momentum equation using four modern reanalysis datasets. Resolved and unresolved waves in the datasets are respectively designated as Rossby waves and GWs, although resolved waves may contain some GWs. First, the potential contribution of Rossby waves (RWs) to residual mean circulation is estimated from Eliassen–Palm flux divergence. The rest of residual mean circulation, from which the potential RW contribution and zonal mean zonal wind tendency are subtracted, is examined as the potential GW contribution, assuming that the assimilation process assures sufficient accuracy of the three components used for this estimation. The GWs contribute to drive not only the summer hemispheric part of the winter deep branch and low-latitude part of shallow branches, as indicated by previous studies, but they also cause a higher-latitude extension of the deep circulation in all seasons except for summer. This GW contribution is essential to determine the location of the turn-around latitude. The autumn circulation is stronger and wider than that of spring in the equinoctial seasons, regardless of almost symmetric RW and GW contributions around the Equator. This asymmetry is attributable to the existence of the spring-to-autumn pole circulation, corresponding to the angular momentum transport associated with seasonal variation due to the radiative process. The potential GW contribution is larger in September to November than in March-to-May in both hemispheres. The upward mass flux is maximized in the boreal winter in the lower stratosphere, while it exhibits semi-annual variation in the upper stratosphere. The boreal winter maximum in the lower stratosphere is attributable to stronger RW activity in both hemispheres than in the austral winter. Plausible deficiencies of current GW parameterizations are discussed by comparing the potential GW contribution and the parameterized GW forcing.</p>

The climatology of the Brewer–Dobson circulation and the contribution of gravity waves

The climatology of residual mean circulation – a main component of the Brewer–Dobson circulation – and the potential contribution of gravity waves (GWs) are examined for the annual mean state and each season in the whole stratosphere based on the transformed-Eulerian mean zonal momentum equation using four modern reanalysis datasets. Resolved and unresolved waves in the datasets are respectively designated as Rossby waves and GWs, although resolved waves may contain some GWs. First, the potential contribution of Rossby waves (RWs) to residual mean circulation is estimated from Eliassen–Palm flux divergence. The rest of residual mean circulation, from which the potential RW contribution and zonal mean zonal wind tendency are subtracted, is examined as the potential GW contribution, assuming that the assimilation process assures sufficient accuracy of the three components used for this estimation. The GWs contribute to drive not only the summer hemispheric part of the winter deep branch and low-latitude part of shallow branches, as indicated by previous studies, but they also cause a higher-latitude extension of the deep circulation in all seasons except for summer. This GW contribution is essential to determine the location of the turn-around latitude. The autumn circulation is stronger and wider than that of spring in the equinoctial seasons, regardless of almost symmetric RW and GW contributions around the Equator. This asymmetry is attributable to the existence of the spring-to-autumn pole circulation, corresponding to the angular momentum transport associated with seasonal variation due to the radiative process. The potential GW contribution is larger in September-to-November than in March-to-May in both hemispheres. The upward mass flux is maximized in the boreal winter in the lower stratosphere, while it exhibits semi-annual variation in the upper stratosphere. The boreal winter maximum in the lower stratosphere is attributable to stronger RW activity in both hemispheres than in the austral winter. Plausible deficiencies of current GW parameterizations are discussed by comparing the potential GW contribution and the parameterized GW forcing.

The Climatology of Brewer-Dobson Circulation and the Contribution of Gravity Waves

The climatology of residual mean circulation, which is a main component of Brewer-Dobson circulation, and the potential contribution of gravity waves (GWs) are examined for the annual mean state and for each season based on the transformed-Eulerian mean zonal momentum equation using modern four reanalysis data, which allows us to examine the whole stratosphere. First, the potential contribution of Rossby waves (RWs) to residual mean circulation is estimated from Eliassen-Palm flux divergence. The rest of residual-mean circulation, from which the potential RW contribution and zonal mean zonal wind tendency are subtracted, is regarded as the potential GW contribution. These potential wave contributions are exact contributions for the annual mean state and give good approximates for solstitial seasons. The GWs contribute to drive not only the summer hemispheric part of the winter deep branch and low-latitude part of shallow branches, as indicated by previous studies, but also cause a higher-latitude extension of the deep circulation in all seasons except for summer. This GW contribution is essential to determine the location of the turn-around latitude. The autumn circulation is stronger and wider than that of spring in the equinoctial seasons, regardless of almost symmetric RW and GW contributions around the equator. This asymmetry is attributable to the existence of the spring-to-autumn pole circulation corresponding to the angular momentum transport associated with seasonal variation due to the radiative process. The potential GW contribution is larger in September-to-November than in March-to-May in both hemispheres. The upward mass flux is maximized in the boreal winter in the lower stratosphere, while it exhibits semi-annual variation in the upper stratosphere. The GW contribution to the annual mean upward mass flux is in a range of 10–30 %, depending on the reanalysis data. The boreal winter maximum in the lower stratosphere is attributable to stronger RW activity in both hemispheres than in the austral winter.

Residual Mean Circulation and Temperature Changes during the Evolution of Stratospheric Sudden Warming Revealed in MERRA

Residual mean circulation and temperature changes during the evolution of major stratospheric sudden warming (SSW) are investigated by composite analyses of 22 SSW events from 1979 to 2012 during the Northern Hemisphere winter (November–March) using four reanalysis data sets (MERRA, ERA-Interim, NCEP-NCAR, and JRA-55). The SSW events are classified as Type-1 or Type-2 based on the relative amplitude of planetary waves with zonal wavenumbers 1 and 2. The residual mean circulation induced by each forcing term in the Transformed Eulerian mean (TEM) momentum equation and the temperature advection associated with the circulation are calculated for both types of SSW, based on the generalized downward control principle using the MERRA data set. When ‘Lag = 0’ is defined as the day on which the wind reversal occurred at 60° N and 10 hPa, strong poleward and downward motion exists at Lag = −8 and Lag = −1 for Type-1 and at Lag = −3 for Type-2, which is induced primarily by the Eliassen–Palm flux divergence forcing (EPD). The poleward and downward motion is stronger for Type-2 than for Type-1. Gravity wave drag (GWD) produces a smaller contribution to the residual circulation than EPD. During the warming phase (at Lag = −2), strong temperature advection by the EPD induces primarily polar stratospheric warming. On the other hand, during the temperature recovery phase (at Lag = +2), anomalous negative temperature advection and diabatic cooling produce negative temperature tendency anomalies. Structures in the temperature tendency and temperature advection calculated using the MERRA data set are similar to those calculated using the ERA-Interim data set.

A New Method to Estimate Three-Dimensional Residual-Mean Circulation in the Middle Atmosphere and Its Application to Gravity Wave–Resolving General Circulation Model Data

A new method is proposed to estimate three-dimensional (3D) material circulation driven by waves based on recently derived formulas by Kinoshita and Sato that are applicable to both Rossby waves and gravity waves. The residual-mean flow is divided into three, that is, balanced flow, unbalanced flow, and Stokes drift. The latter two are wave-induced components estimated from momentum flux divergence and heat flux divergence, respectively. The unbalanced mean flow is equivalent to the zonal-mean flow in the two-dimensional (2D) transformed Eulerian mean (TEM) system. Although these formulas were derived using the “time mean,” the underlying assumption is the separation of spatial or temporal scales between the mean and wave fields. Thus, the formulas can be used for both transient and stationary waves. Considering that the average is inherently needed to remove an oscillatory component of unaveraged quadratic functions, the 3D wave activity flux and wave-induced residual-mean flow are estimated by an extended Hilbert transform. In this case, the scale of mean flow corresponds to the whole scale of the wave packet. Using simulation data from a gravity wave–resolving general circulation model, the 3D structure of the residual-mean circulation in the stratosphere and mesosphere is examined for January and July. The zonal-mean field of the estimated 3D circulation is consistent with the 2D circulation in the TEM system. An important result is that the residual-mean circulation is not zonally uniform in both the stratosphere and mesosphere. This is likely caused by longitudinally dependent wave sources and propagation characteristics. The contribution of planetary waves and gravity waves to these residual-mean flows is discussed.

Interannual Changes of Stratospheric Temperature and Ozone: Forcing by Anomalous Wave Driving and the QBO

A 3D model of dynamics and photochemistry is used to investigate interannual changes of stratospheric dynamical and chemical structure through their dependence on tropospheric planetary waves and on the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO). The integrations reproduce the salient features of the climate sensitivities of temperature and ozone, which have been composited from the observed records of ECMWF and the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS). Characterized by a strong anomaly of one sign at polar latitudes and a comparatively weak anomaly of opposite sign at subpolar latitudes, each bears the signature of the residual mean circulation. The structure is very similar to that associated with the Arctic Oscillation. The integrations imply that, jointly, anomalous Eliassen–Palm (EP) flux transmitted from the troposphere by planetary waves and the QBO are the major mechanisms behind interannual changes in the stratosphere. An analogous conclusion follows from the observational record. During early winter, anomalous temperature and ozone are accounted for almost entirely by anomalous EP flux from the troposphere, as they are in the observational record. During late winter, both mechanisms are required to reproduce observed anomalies. Although the QBO forces anomalous structure equatorward of 40°N, the strong anomaly over the Arctic follows principally from anomalous upward EP flux. Reflecting anomalous wave driving of residual mean motion, the change of EP flux leads to anomalous downwelling of ozone-rich air. In concert with isentropic mixing by planetary waves, the anomalous enrichment that ensues at extratropical latitudes sharply modifies total ozone over the Arctic. Integrations distinguished by the omission of heterogeneous processes indicate that chemical destruction accounts for approximately 20% of the anomaly in Arctic ozone between warm and cold winters. Analogous to estimates derived from the observed record of the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet, version 8 (SBUV-V8) instrument, the remaining approximately 80% follows from anomalous transport. The climate sensitivities of temperature and ozone describe random changes between years, introduced by anomalous EP flux and the QBO. Those interannual changes evolve with a particular seasonality. Like their structure, the seasonal dependence of anomalous temperature and ozone bears the signature of the residual mean circulation. Systematic changes in the observed record, which comprise stratospheric trends, have similar structure and seasonality.