Collaborative Research: A Diagnostic and Modeling Study of Stratosphere-Troposphere Coupling in the Arctic Oscillation

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT ATM-0001325 & ATM-0001346 Robinson, Walter & Black, Robert University of Illinois & Georgia Institute of Technology The collaborative research will examine coupling between the troposphere and stratosphere. Until recently, the dynamical coupling has been regarded as uni-directional with tropospheric planetary waves propagating upwards, and inducing changes in stratospheric dynamical fields. Recent evidence indicates variations in the stratospheric polar vortex can also directly induce significant circulation anomalies in the troposphere. The PIs propose to study the coupling between stratosphere and troposphere during intraseasonal AO events, by applying potential vorticity (PV) and diagnostic modeling approaches, to both observational analyses and mechanistic numerical modeling experiment. The work is important because it will increase our knowledge and understanding of high latitude climate variability due to the Arctic Oscillation