This title appears in the Scientific Report :
2023
The QBO and tropical waves in Aeolus wind observations, radiosonde data, and reanalyses
The QBO and tropical waves in Aeolus wind observations, radiosonde data, and reanalyses
The quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) of the tropical winds in the stratosphere has effect on the global circulation over a wide range of latitudes and altitudes, and it affects surface weather and climate. Free-running general circulation models (GCMs) have large difficulties in simulating a realist...
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Personal Name(s): | Ern, Manfred |
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Krisch, Isabell (Corresponding author) / Reitebuch, Oliver / Giorgetta, M. / Diallo, Mohamadou Abdoulaye / Khordakova, Dina / Preusse, Peter / Ungermann, Jörn / Riese, Martin | |
Contributing Institute: |
Stratosphäre; IEK-7 |
Imprint: |
2023
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Conference: | Aeolus Science Conference, Rhodes Island (Greece), 2023-05-22 - 2023-05-26 |
Document Type: |
Conference Presentation |
Research Program: |
Climate Feedbacks |
Publikationsportal JuSER |
The quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) of the tropical winds in the stratosphere has effect on the global circulation over a wide range of latitudes and altitudes, and it affects surface weather and climate. Free-running general circulation models (GCMs) have large difficulties in simulating a realistic QBO, especially in the lower stratosphere. Therefore, global wind observations in the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) are of particular interest for investigating the QBO, as well as for investigating tropical waves that contribute significantly to the driving of the QBO. In our work, we investigate the QBO in global wind observations by the Aeolus satellite instrument, radiosonde data, and three meteorological reanalyses (ERA-5, JRA-55, and MERRA-2). We find that the QBO in the lower stratosphere is well-represented in all three reanalyses, with ERA-5 performing best, while local radiosonde stations can be biased by global-scale waves. We also find that in the tropical UTLS zonal wind variances of quasi-stationary waves and major global-scale equatorial wave modes, like Kelvin waves, Rossby-gravity waves, and equatorial Rossby waves, are qualitatively in good agreement between Aeolus wind observations and all three reanalyses. |