Stratospheric Polar Vortex as an Important Link between the Lower Atmosphere Circulation and Solar Activity

Abstract

The stratospheric polar vortex is a large-scale cyclonic circulation that forms in a cold air mass in the polar region and extends from the middle troposphere to the stratosphere. The polar vortex is implicated in a variety of atmospheric processes, such as the formation of ozone holes, the North Atlantic and the Arctic Oscillations, variations in extratropical cyclone tracks, etc. The results presented in this work show that the vortex plays an important part in the mechanism of solar activity influence on lower atmosphere circulation, with variations in the vortex intensity being responsible for temporal variability in the correlation links observed between atmospheric characteristics and solar activity phenomena. In turn, the location of the vortex is favorable for the influence of ionization changes associated with charged particle fluxes (cosmic rays, auroral and radiation belt electrons) that affect the chemical composition and temperature regime of the polar atmosphere as well as its electric properties and cloudiness state. In this work, recent results concerning solar activity effects on the state of the stratospheric polar vortex as well as its role in solar–atmospheric links are discussed.