Downward Coupling between the Stratosphere and Troposphere: The Relative Roles of Wave and Zonal Mean Processes*

Abstract

Abstract Wave and zonal mean features of the downward dynamic coupling between the stratosphere and troposphere are compared by applying a time-lagged singular value decomposition analysis to Northern Hemisphere height fields decomposed into zonal mean and its deviations. It is found that both zonal and wave components contribute to the downward interaction, with zonal wave 1 (due to reflection) dominating on the short time scale (up to 12 days) and the zonal mean (due to wave–mean-flow interaction) dominating on the longer time scale. It is further shown that the two processes dominate during different years, depending on the state of the stratosphere. Winters characterized by a basic state that is reflective for wave 1 show a strong relationship between stratospheric and tropospheric wave-1 fields when the stratosphere is leading and show no significant correlations in the zonal mean fields. On the other hand, winters characterized by a stratospheric state that does not reflect waves show a strong relationship only between stratospheric and tropospheric zonal mean fields. This study suggests that there are two types of stratospheric winter states, characterized by different downward dynamic interaction. In one state, most of the wave activity gets deposited in the stratosphere, resulting in strong wave–mean-flow interaction, while in the other state, wave activity is reflected back down to the troposphere, primarily affecting the structure of tropospheric planetary waves.