Response of the low latitude mesosphere and lower thermosphere to the recent sudden stratospheric warming events of 2017–18 and 2019

Abstract

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Upper mesospheric wind data acquired by the medium frequency radar at Kolhapur (16.7oN, 74.2oE) and Modern–Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Application version 2 (MERRA-2) temperature and wind reanalysis datasets are used to investigate the dynamical response of the low-latitude middle atmosphere to the sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) events that occurred during the 2017–18 and 2018–19 winters. When the amplitude of the high-latitude stratospheric planetary wave (PW) of zonal wavenumber one reduces considerably with the onset of the SSW event, the low-latitude mesospheric PW over Kolhapur also shows a considerable reduction in the PW activity. It is noteworthy that the upper mesospheric winds are eastward for approximately 3 weeks after the onset of SSW. The reduced PW activity is associated with the enhanced gravity wave activity in the meridional wind during the SSW 2018–19 event. The plane of propagation of gravity waves obtained from the perturbation ellipse method suggests that their predominant plane of propagation is in the north–south direction. The persistence of the eastward winds is suggested to be due to the interaction of the northward propagating gravity waves with the mean flow, leading to the eastward acceleration due to the Coriolis force.

Keywords

• planetary waves
• gravity wave
• mesosphere and lower thermosphere
• sudden stratospheric warming
• wavenumber
• polar vortex