EGU23-14077
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-14077
EGU General Assembly 2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Abrupt Change in the Lower Thermospheric Mean Meridional Circulation during Sudden Stratospheric Warmings and its Impact on Trace Species

Yvan Orsolini1,2, Jiarong Zhang3, and Varavut Limpasuvan3
Yvan Orsolini et al.
  • 1NILU - Norwegian Institute for Air Research (orsolini@nilu.no), Norway
  • 2Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
  • 3Coastal Carolina University, South Carolina, U.S.A

Based on the hourly output from the 2000–2014 simulations of the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s vertically extended version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model in specified dynamics configuration, we examine the roles of planetary waves, gravity waves and atmospheric tides in driving the mean meridional circulation in the lower thermosphere and its response to the sudden stratospheric warming phenomenon with an elevated stratopause in the northern hemisphere. Sandwiched between the two summer-to-winter overturning circulations in the mesosphere and the upper thermosphere, the climatological lower thermosphere mean meridional circulation is a narrow gyre that is characterized by upwelling in the middle winter latitudes, equatorward flow near 120 km, and downwelling in the middle and high summer latitudes. Following the onset of the sudden stratospheric warmings, this gyre reverses its climatological direction, resulting in a “chimney-like” feature of un-interrupted polar descent from the altitude of 150 km down to the upper mesosphere. This reversal is driven by the westward-propagating planetary waves, which exert a brief but significant westward forcing between 70 and 125 km, exceeding gravity wave and tidal forcings in that altitude range. The attendant polar descent potentially leads to a short-lived enhanced transport of nitric oxide into the mesosphere (with excess in the order of 1. parts per million), while carbon dioxide is decreased.

How to cite: Orsolini, Y., Zhang, J., and Limpasuvan, V.: Abrupt Change in the Lower Thermospheric Mean Meridional Circulation during Sudden Stratospheric Warmings and its Impact on Trace Species, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-14077, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-14077, 2023.