Periodic variations in stratospheric zonal wind from 20 to 65 km, at 80° N to 70° S

✍ Scribed by A. D. Belmont; D. G. Dartt; G. D. Nastrom

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1974
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 603 KB
• Volume: 100
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49710042407

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

To help understand the observed variability of zonal wind, the amplitude and phase of five component waves are displayed on height‐latitude sections, 20 to 65 km, 80° N to 70° S using rawinsonde and meteorological rocket data for twelve years. Among the new features are the polar semiannual wave in the Southern Hemisphere, matching that in the Northern Hemisphere. The tropic semiannual wave seems displaced south of the Equator. A terannual wave with 20 m s^−1^ amplitude is possibly related to the square wave properties of the annual insolational heating at high latitudes. Both the annual and terannual waves appear to have minima north of the Equator.