The Delayed Response of the Troposphere-Stratosphere-Mesosphere Coupling to the 2019 Southern SSW

A strong Southern Hemisphere (SH) sudden stratospheric warming event occurred in September 2019 and significantly weakened the stratospheric polar vortex. Due to the positive zonal wind anomalies in the troposphere, the barotropic/baroclinic instability, primarily controlled by the horizontal/vertical wind shear, weakened in the upper troposphere at midlatitudes in late September and early October. As a result, planetary waves (PWs) were deflected equatorward near the tropopause rather than upward into the stratosphere, resulting in less perturbation to the stratospheric polar vortex. After October 15, the westward zonal wind anomalies propagate downward and reach the troposphere, increasing the tropospheric barotropic/baroclinic instability. This benefits the propagation of PWs into the stratosphere, leading to the early breaking of the stratospheric polar vortex. In turn, the SH mesosphere becomes anomalously cold due to the stratospheric wind filtering on the gravity waves, leading to the much earlier onset of SH polar mesospheric clouds.