The 11-year solar cycle, the sun’s rotation, and the middle stratosphere in winter: Part I: Response of zonal means

Abstract

The effect of the 11-year solar cycle on the response of the stratospheric geopotential height and temperature fields at 10 and 30 hPa in winter to solar activity oscillations with periods related to the period of the Sun’s rotation (27.2 days) is discussed, applying methods of statistical spectral analysis to daily data for the period from 1965 to 1996. Atmospheric responses for three periodicities — 27.2 days (period of the Sun’s rotation), 25.3 days (periodicity caused by the modulation of the 27.2 days oscillation by annual atmospheric variation), and 54.4 days (doubled period of the solar rotation) — are studied. A significant effect of the 11-year solar cycle on the atmospheric response to the 27.2 days solar periodicity has not been found. We explain it by a frequency shift of the response from the 27.2 days to the 25.3 days periodicity via amplitude modulation. For the 25.3 days oscillation, prominent differences between the maximum and minimum of the 11-year solar cycle have been found in the coherence between the 10.7 cm solar radio flux and the height/temperature fields: the relationships are stronger at solar maximum than at the minimum of the 11-year cycle. The same differences, but to a greater extent, are revealed for the oscillation with a period of 54.4 days. Coherence and amplitude estimates for this doubled solar rotation periodicity exhibit strong differences between extrema of the 11-year solar cycle. Phase estimates also demonstrate a clear difference between high and low solar activity: on the average, the delay of the atmospheric response after the solar signal is smaller at solar maximum than at solar minimum. Thus, we conclude that the mechanism of the influence of the 11-year solar cycle on the winter middle stratosphere can include both a direct effect of the frequency corresponding to the doubled solar rotation periodicity and an indirect effect of modulation of the intensity of the interaction between the solar 27.2 days oscillation and seasonal atmospheric variations.