Influences of Sudden Stratospheric Warming Events on Tropopause Based on GNSS Radio Occultation Data

Abstract

Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) events have a strong impact on the tropospheric weather and climate. Past researchers have carried out extensive studies investigating the theories of interactions between the stratosphere and the troposphere. However, detailed studies on the influences of the global tropopause are rarely shown. This study uses Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (RO) data from the years 2007 to 2013 to investigate the influences of different types of SSW events on the tropopause over latitude bands from 30° S to 90° N. It was found that SSW events have strong influences on the tropopause over 60° N–90° N and over 20° N–30° N regions. In 60° N–90° N, SSW events cause a tropopause temperature increase and, therefore, a tropopause height decrease. The increment in the tropopause temperature are more than 10 K and the decrement in the tropopause height is about to 2 km during strong events. Such influences last for about 1.5 months for strong split events and about 10 days for weaker and/or displacement type events. The influences of SSW events on 20° N–30° N are weaker. Only the January 2009 SSW event shows a visible influence on the tropopause layer with a tropopause temperature decrease of about 4 K and a tropopause height increase of about 1 km. Other SSW events share no common characteristics on the tropical tropopause. This is mainly because SSW events are not strong enough to dominate the tropopause variations and other factors, especially the planetary waves in the troposphere, have stronger impacts on the tropopause layer.

Keywords

• sudden stratospheric warming
• tropopause
• radio occultation