Stratospheric warming effects on the tropical mesospheric temperature field

Abstract

Temperature observations at 20–90 km height and 5–15°N during the winter of 1992–1993, 1993–1994 and 2003–2004, from the Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) experiments on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) satellite and the Sounding the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) experiment on the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite are analyzed together with MF radar winds and UK Meteorological Office (UKMO) assimilated fields. Mesospheric cooling is observed at the time of stratospheric warming at the tropics correlative with stratospheric warming events at middle and high latitudes. Planetary waves m=1 with periods of 4–5, 6–8, 10 and 12–18 days are found to dominate the period. Westward 7- and 16-day waves at the tropics appear enhanced by stationary planetary waves during sudden stratospheric warming events.