Effect of zonally asymmetric ozone on stratospheric temperature and planetary wave propagation

Abstract

For northern winter hemisphere, decadal means of zonally asymmetric stratospheric ozone are derived from ECMWF Reanalysis (ERA‐40) and included in the GCM MAECHAM5 to investigate their effects on temperature and planetary wave propagation in the middle atmosphere. The stratospheric ozone of ERA‐40 shows a strong decadal increase in wave one structure with amplitudes of 10% of zonal mean ozone during the 1990s. The model calculations reveal that the related radiation perturbations induce significant temperature changes increasing with height (−4 K at 50 hPa and −8 K at 0.1 hPa) due to an increase in amplitude and a shift in phase of stratospheric wave one. Also, we found an induced shift of up‐ and eastward directed stationary wave trains from the eastern to the western hemisphere. The results illustrate the important influence of ozone‐dynamics interaction, and suggest that the decadal changes in zonally asymmetric ozone may have contributed largely to observed stratospheric temperature trends.