Journal Article

FZJ-2014-03718

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png The double tropopause and its dynamical relationship to the tropopause inversion layer in storm track regions

Peevey, T. (Corresponding Author)FZJ* ; Gille, J. C. ; Homeyer, C. R. ; Manney, G. L.

2014
Union Washington, DC

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Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/16101  doi:10.1002/2014JD021808

Abstract: Using High Resolution Dynamic Limb Sounder observations and ERA-Interim reanalysis this study demonstrates that the warm conveyor belt (WCB) is a mechanism responsible for the relationship between the double tropopause (DT) and the tropopause inversion layer (TIL), a relationship recently suggested in the literature based on idealized model simulations of baroclinic disturbances. Using these data sets, spatial and temporal characteristics of the DT-TIL relationship are examined over a 3 year period, 2005–2008. In the extratropics, results from satellite data show that as the TIL increases in strength, so does the frequency of the DT, regardless of season or hemisphere. The inverse relationship is found in the tropics. Using only DT profiles, zonal composites of wind, relative vorticity, and temperature from reanalysis data show that as the TIL increases in strength, the upper tropospheric circulation switches from cyclonic to anticyclonic, and the upward vertical motion increases. This result suggests the WCB as a mechanism since it is on the anticyclonic side of the jet and is characterized by the movement of tropical air poleward and upward from the surface. To verify this relationship, the vertical and horizontal development of a synoptic-scale baroclinic system is analyzed over a 4 day period. Results show the equatorward extension of the polar tropopause, and thus the formation of the DT, due to the strengthening of the TIL in the region of vertical motion associated with the WCB. Moreover, this result suggests that air movement within the DT could originate from high latitudes when associated with a baroclinic disturbance.

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Stratosphäre (IEK-7)

Research Program(s):

1. 234 - Composition and Dynamics of the Upper Troposphere and Stratosphere (POF2-234) (POF2-234)

Appears in the scientific report 2014

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Database coverage:
; ; Current Contents - Agriculture, Biology and Environmental Sciences ; Current Contents - Social and Behavioral Sciences ; JCR ; NCBI Molecular Biology Database ; SCOPUS ; Science Citation Index ; Science Citation Index Expanded ; Thomson Reuters Master Journal List ; Web of Science Core Collection

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