Tegtmeier, Susann , Anstey, James, Davis, Sean , Ivanciu, Ioana , Jia, Yue , McPhee, David and Pilch Kedzierski, Robin (2020) Zonal asymmetry of the QBO temperature signal in the tropical tropopause region. Geophysical Research Letters, 47 (24). Art.Nr. e2020GL089533. DOI 10.1029/2020GL089533.

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Abstract

The quasi‐biennial oscillation (QBO) of the equatorial zonal wind leads to zonally symmetric temperature variations in the stratosphere that descend downward. Here we investigate the QBO‐induced temperature anomalies in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) and detect pronounced longitudinal variations of the signal. In addition, the QBO temperature anomalies show a strong seasonal variability. The magnitude of these seasonal and longitudinal QBO variations is comparable to the magnitude of the well‐known zonal mean QBO signal in the TTL. At the cold point tropopause, the strongest QBO variations of around ±1.6 K are found over regions of active convection such as the West Pacific and Africa during boreal winter. The weakest QBO variations of ±0.25 K are detected over the East Pacific during boreal summer, while the zonal mean signal ranges around ±0.7 K. The longitudinal variations are associated with enhanced convective activity that occurs during QBO cold phases and locally enhances the cold anomalies.

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