Re: El Nino Outlook on Weather and Measuring Atmospheric Temp


"W. Watson" <wolf_tracks@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:wdmYf.11665$Bj7.8641@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
|
|...
|
| I heard part of a weather announcement a few days ago that said scientists
| had detected the unusual appearance of warm air above the antarctic. Are
| there any more details on that. This leads me to ask scientists can detect
| this? I would think weather balloons, but perhaps satellites too.
|

The article I read described this as a "Stratospheric Warming". I am not
sure how common they are over the Antarctic, but if it is the phenomenon I
think it is, then they are certainly not unknown in the Arctic and are not
directly related to the "Global Warming" scare.

The ones over the Arctic happen two or three times in most winters. The
temperature in the lower stratosphere rises markedly and this affects the
wind pattern also as the warm air causes a pressure rise above it. The
normal low pressure westerly vortex at middle to high levels caused by the
cold air over the poles is greatly weakened or may even be replaced by
easterlies at certain levels in the stratosphere. Weather balloons can rise
high enough to detect both the temperature and wind field changes.

The direct cause of this is not greenhouse gases, but is believed to be
transfer of energy upwards from the troposphere. Energy accumulates in the
wave patterns that can be seen on middle-level pressure charts, especially
the large scale waves which produce "blocking highs" and "cut-off lows" at
the surface, and in the right circumstances this energy can pass through the
tropopause and warm the lower stratosphere.

Presumably the climatology of the Antarctic with its stronger cold vortex
than the Arctic makes such warmings more unlikely there, which is why the
phenomenon attracted attention. Similar episodes in the Arctic pass without
comment, except in the higher meteorological circles.
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