The propagation and transport effect of planetary waves in the Northern Hemisphere winter

Based on the transformed Eulerian-mean equations, the dynamics of planetary waves are discussed. Both observations and simulations indicate that in the Northern Hemisphere winter there are two waveguides for the meridional propagation of quasi-statio nary planetary waves.. One is the high latitude waveguide, and the other is the low latitude waveguide. These results are in good agreement with theoretical analysis. Moreover, the convergence of EP flux indicates that the stratospheric sudden warming is the result of anomalous planetary wave propagation along the high latitude waveguide and its interaction with mean flows. The tropical quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) winds, which represent one significant variation of zonal flow in the lower stratosphere at low latitudes, can influence the low latitude waveguide of planetary wave propagation. Our results of the wave-mean flow coupled model show that these tropical winds can also modulate the high latitude waveguide significantly in the case of wave-mean flow interaction. The transport effect of planetary waves on ozone is also analyzed. The residual mean circulation forced by planetary waves indicates that there is strong transport circulation for the dissipative planetary waves. Under the forcing of northward eddy heat transport, a positive transport circulation can result which rises at low latitudes and sinks at high latitudes. At the same time, the modification of planetary wave propagation by the equatorial QBO winds is shown to have an important impact on the transport circulation. The model results indicate that the meridional transport is amplified during the easterly phase of the QBO. This mechanism may explain the interannual variability of ozone in the stratosphere at high latitudes.