The delayed response of the troposphere-stratosphere-mesosphere coupling
to the 2019 southern SSW
Abstract
A strong Southern Hemisphere (SH) sudden stratospheric warming (SSW)
event occurred in September 2019 and significantly weakened the
stratospheric polar vortex. Due to the positive zonal wind anomalies in
the troposphere, the barotropic/baroclinic instability, primarily
controlled by the horizontal/vertical wind shear, weakened in the upper
troposphere at midlatitudes in late September and early October. As a
result, planetary waves (PWs) were deflected equatorward near the
tropopause rather than upward into the stratosphere, resulting in less
perturbation to the stratospheric polar vortex. After October 15, the
westward zonal wind anomalies propagate downward and reach the
troposphere, increasing the tropospheric barotropic/baroclinic
instability. This benefits the propagation of PWs into the stratosphere,
leading to the early breaking of the stratospheric polar vortex. In
turn, the SH mesosphere becomes anomalously cold due to the
stratospheric wind filtering on the gravity waves (GWs), leading to the
much earlier onset of SH polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs).