Diagnostic Study of a Wavenumber-2 Stratospheric Sudden Warming in a Transformed Eulerian-Mean Formalism

Abstract

The intense wavenumber-2 stratospheric warming of February 1979 is analyzed in a transformed Eulerian-mean formalism, and compared with diagnostics generated by the model warming of Dunkerton et al. (1981). Significant differences in the evolution of the zonal mean flow are found. The corresponding differences in wave, mean-flow interaction are examined by studying planetary wave activity in the troposphere and stratosphere, as measured by the Eliassen-Palm flux and its divergence. It is found that in the stratosphere, the direction of this flux changes several times during the warming. Zonal flow deceleration is most intense when the midlatitude stratospheric flux has positive poleward and upward components. Conversely, deceleration is smallest when the flux is directed equatorward. Some mechanisms that may account for this switching are discussed. However, unlike the model, the high-latitude zonal flow reversal does not arise from nonlinear critical layer interaction with the waves.