SA001-0006
Variations of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere in response to the 2019 Southern Hemisphere Sudden Stratospheric Warming

Monday, 7 December 2020
Poster
Guiping Liu1,2, Diego Janches3, Ruth Segal Lieberman4, Tracy Moffat-Griffin5, Nicholas J Mitchell6, Jeong-han Kim7 and Changsup Lee7, (1)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (2)Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, United States, (3)NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (4)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (5)British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom, (6)University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom, (7)Korea Polar Research Institute, Division of Climate Change, Incheon, Korea, Republic of (South)
Abstract:
Sudden Stratospheric Warmings (SSWs) have been found to play a significant role in the vertical coupling of atmospheric regions. However, due to rare occurrences in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) the impacts of SSWs during the SH winters are not well known. This study investigates the variations in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) observed during the unusual SSW in SH in September 2019. The study analyzes the observations of the zonal and meridional winds in the altitude range of ~80-97 km by three meteor radars at Tierra del Fuego (TDF; 53.7oS, 67.7oW), King Edward Point (KEP; 54.3oS, 36.5oW), and King Sejong Station (KSS; 62.2oS, 58.8oW) at SH mid-to-high latitudes. All stations exhibit a distinct quasi-6 day oscillation, with the amplitude of ~20 m s-1 in both wind components. The phase progression with longitude suggests the westward propagating wavenumber-1 structure of this wave. These reveal the large variations in the MLT region in response to the SH SSW.
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