Association between the ll-Year Solar Cycle and the Atmosphere. Part IV: The Stratosphere, Not Grouped by the Phase of the QBO

Abstract

The pattern in the Northern Hemisphere of correlation between the 11-year solar cycle and temperatures or geopotential heights at 100 and 30 mb has large positive correlation coefficients in tropical and middle latitudes. The distribution is zonally asymmetrical in wave 1, with the higher values over the oceanic, western half of the hemisphere. We refer to this as the Basic Pattern. Although the Basic Pattern is evident in winter, it is weak; but when the winter data are grouped according to the phase of the equatorial Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, large correlations of opposite sign appear in middle and high latitudes and in the east and west years of the QBO. The pattern at middle and low latitudes in the east years in winter resembles the Basic Pattern, leaving the west years in winter as the only instance when the pattern does not appear in correlations with the solar cycle. The correlations between the solar cycle and temperature in the stratosphere follow the pattern of the height correlations but are weaker.