Troposphere and stratosphere influence on tropopause in the polar regions during winter and spring

Arctic and Antarctic tropopause is formed under unique climate conditions, both in the troposphere and stratosphere. Individual patterns of polar tropopause anomalies are formed under dominance or competition of the tropospheric and stratospheric sources. We analyse the thermal tropopause climatology in the polar regions using National Centers for Environmental Prediction-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP-NCAR) Reanalysis-1 data between 1979 and 2008. The role of the troposphere and stratosphere in tropopause anomaly distribution is examined using corresponding temperature and geopotential height fields. By location, the tropopause anomalies in the Arctic and Antarctic are closer to patterns of cold anomalies in the troposphere and stratosphere respectively. Results indicate that the 30-year climatological tropopause anomalies in polar winter and spring could have different relationships to troposphere and stratosphere influences, even in neighbouring parts of the polar atmosphere.