RUI: Traveling Planetary-Scale Waves during Major Stratospheric Sudden Warming

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The abrupt breakdown of the wintertime polar vortex, known as sudden stratospheric warming, can significantly change near-surface weather activities. Precursory eastward traveling planetary-scale waves in the mesosphere are thought to play a triggering role in initiating such abrupt breakdown of the wintertime polar vortex, but their origin and importance are not well understood. The atmospheric response to the vortex's demise can in turn excite westward traveling planetary-scale waves and amplify atmospheric tidal disturbances. However, the impacts and mechanisms of these responses in the upper mesospheric and lower thermospheric region are still unclear. This project combines analysis from space-based (Aura Microwave Limb Sounder, or MLS and Sounding of the Atmosphere using the Broadband Emission Radiometry, or SABER) and ground-based sensors (network of high-frequency radars), reanalysis, and a global chemistry-climate model to further illuminate the roles and causes of these traveling waves and tidal disturbances with respect to sudden stratospheric warming. Understanding the impacts of these atmospheric perturbations may improve knowledge of space physics and the assessments of stratospheric ozone loss and wintertime climate evolution. Specifically, these perturbations can promote strong ionospheric variability that alters global communications and induce forcings that enhance the downwelling of ozone-destroying chemical species from the upper mesosphere. New insights on precursory mesospheric waves prior to the vortex breakdown can assist seasonal forecasting. Importantly, the research activities will offer experiential learning opportunities for undergraduates on cutting-edge research that is unique in South Carolina and the greater Southeastern Regions. While serving as frameworks for a doctoral thesis, project results will be incorporated into undergraduate and graduate courses at a state-supported Liberal Arts institution that is embarking on its first and only doctoral program in atmospheric science related degree.