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Temperatures In The Mid-Latitude Mesosphere During Sudden Stratospheric Warmings As Determined From Rayleigh Lidar Data, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Chad Fish, Joshua P. Herron

Graduate Student Posters

Sudden Stratospheric Warmings (SSWs) are major disturbances in the polar region of the winter hemisphere that cause major changes in stratospheric temperature and circulation. SSWs are characterized by a temperature increase of tens of degrees Kelvin, averaged over 60°-90° latitude, and a weakening of the polar vortex that persists for the order of a week at the 10 hPa level (roughly 32 km) [Labitzke and Naujokat, 2000]. The polar vortices are cyclones centered on both of the Earth’s poles that are present from the mid-troposphere to the lower stratosphere. Eastward zonal winds define the strong polar vortices in the winter. …