Characteristics and Mechanism of Interhemispheric Coupling in Austral Winter Revealed by Long‐Term Reanalysis Data for the Whole Middle Atmosphere

Abstract

AbstractGlobal characteristics of dynamical fields for the interhemispheric coupling (IHC) initiated with a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) in the southern hemisphere in the austral winter were examined using the global reanalysis for the whole neutral atmosphere from a data assimilation with satellite observations over 15 years of 2005–2019. Even in the austral winter, a strong cold equatorial stratosphere associated with the SSW, which is essential for the IHC, occurs about once every two years. The mechanism of the IHC in the austral winter is basically similar to that in the boreal winter. However, there are two significant differences in the IHC characteristics between the austral and boreal winters. One is that the SSW in the austral winter occurs mainly at midlatitudes, whereas the SSW in the boreal winter occurs mainly at high latitudes. As a result, a warm temperature anomaly simultaneously appears in the southern polar mesosphere in the austral winter, which is not observed for the boreal winter. The other is related to the seasonal variation of the quasi‐two‐day wave activity and induced forcing and gravity wave forcing in the summer mesosphere. For the IHC events occurring in July, when these wave activities and forcings are high, the response in the summer mesosphere is similar to that of the boreal winter. In contrast, for late August and September, when these wave forcings are weak, the response in the summer mesosphere is small. This result indicates that the IHC characteristics are largely influenced by the seasonal variation of these waves.