Modeling Seasonal Sudden Stratospheric Warming Climatology Based on Polar Vortex Statistics

Abstract

This study investigates the climatological frequency distribution of sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs). General circulation models (GCMs) tend to produce SSW maxima later in winter than observations, which has been considered as a model deficiency. However, the observed record is short, calling into question the representativeness of the observational record. To study the seasonality of SSWs and the factors behind it, the authors use observations, a long control simulation with a stratosphere resolving GCM, and also a simple statistical model that is based on the climatological seasonal cycle of the polar vortex winds. From the combined analysis, the authors conclude that the late-winter SSW maximum seen in most climate models is realistic and that observations would also have a late-winter SSW maximum if more data were available. The authors identify the seasonally varying strengths of the polar vortex and stratospheric wave driving as the two main factors behind the seasonal SSW distribution. The statistical model also indicates that there exists a continuum of weak polar vortex states and that SSWs simply form the tail of normally distributed stratospheric winds.