Abstract
The production of tracer variability by inertia-gravity waves is contrasted with that due to quasi-geostrophic motions. High frequency variability in ozone in the lower stratosphere is often highly correlated with fluctuations in potential temperature, and can be interpreted as evidence for vertical displacements of material surfaces by inertia gravity waves. Examples are shown from recent aircraft measurements.
Tracer variability in the summer stratosphere, as deduced from balloon based measurements of long-lived tracers, is not associated with significant potential temperature oscillations. Such variability may be generated by linearly polarized normal mode oscillations (in which parcel trajectories nearly coincide with the mean isentropes), or may be the result of “frozen in” variance generated by irreversible parcel displacements occurring during the breakdown of the polar vortex in the springtime final warming.
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© 1987 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holand.
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Holton, J.R. (1987). The Production of Temporal Variability in Trace Constituent Concentrations. In: Visconti, G., Garcia, R. (eds) Transport Processes in the Middle Atmosphere. NATO ASI Series, vol 213. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3973-8_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3973-8_20
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