Tropospheric response to stratospheric momentum torques

An idealised model is used to examine the tropospheric response to stratospheric momentum torques with an emphasis on the response to high-latitude sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs). Previous related studies have generally imposed such torques in models that lack a key element of realism; for instance, models that do not have a realistic stratosphere, models without stationary planetary waves (i.e., without topography), and models that do not have a troposphere and so precludes any investigation of a downward impact. The idealised moist model of an atmosphere (MiMA) used here overcomes these three shortcomings and is hence well-suited to study the downward impact of extreme events in the stratosphere in a more realistic setup. In particular, we impose transient zonally-symmetric momentum forcing to various latitude bands in the stratosphere, spun-off from a free-running control run (CTRL). In addition to varying the latitudinal location of the forcing, we vary the depth, duration and magnitude to examine the sensitivity of the tropospheric response. Preliminary results show that in contrast to thermally-forced SSWs for which the initial 'Eliassen adjustment' (i.e., the meridional circulation response during the forcing period) is opposite to that found during free-running SSWs, the momentum-forced events here, produce a meridional circulation that mimics that found in the free-running events. This meridional circulation immediately transfers the imposed momentum forcing to the surface, projecting onto the tropospheric Northern Annular Mode (NAM) and initiating a synoptic-wave feedback, a process that takes much longer to develop in the thermally-forced SSWs. Hence, a sudden and strong enough wave forcing (approximated here by an imposed momentum torque) can induce a meridional circulation that penetrates deep into the troposphere and immediately initiate a tropospheric NAM response. The applicability of these experiments to the real atmosphere will be discussed via comparing the evolution of the forced events to free-running SSWs identified in CTRL.