Interannual changes of temperature and ozone: Relationship between the lower and upper stratosphere

Abstract : Changes of stratospheric dynamical structure and ozone are investigated in observations of the lower stratosphere, from meteorological analyses and Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) ozone, and in contemporaneous observations of the upper stratosphere and mesosphere, from the French lidar at Observatoire de Haute-Provence (OHP). Interannual changes in the lower stratosphere are shown to be accompanied by coherent changes in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere. Over the 1980s and 1990s, both operate coherently with anomalous forcing of the residual mean circulation. Changes of temperature and ozone at OHP have sign and structure consistent with interannual changes of meridional transport. They reflect a poleward expansion and contraction of warm ozone-rich air, compensated by opposite changes of the polar-night vortex.