Zonal‐mean global teleconnection from 15 to 110 km derived from SABER and WACCM

Abstract

We derive the correlation patterns over the global latitudes and from the stratosphere to lower thermosphere (broadly referred to as teleconnection) using temperature data measured by the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) from 2002 to 2010, and using 54 years of simulations of temperatures and winds by the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM). We also analyze the possible mechanisms of teleconnection by investigating the correlations between the temperature and residual circulation. The correlation patterns show that teleconnection exists globally over the equatorial, mid‐ and high‐latitudes, and temperature anomalies correspond well to the anomalies of the residual circulations through adiabatic heating/cooling. A main new finding of this study is that the teleconnection extends well into the lower thermosphere, the thermospheric anomalies are consistent with the corresponding changes of the winter‐to‐summer lower‐thermospheric branch of the residual circulation, and the winter stratosphere perturbations influence the thermosphere globally. Using a reference point chosen in the northern winter stratosphere, we find that the teleconnection structures for time periods with and without Sudden Stratospheric Warmings (SSWs) display similar patterns in SABER, and teleconnection patterns in WACCM are nearly identical for days with major SSWs, minor SSWs and without SSWs. WACCM results show strong inter‐annual and intra‐annual altitude variations of the teleconnection patterns in the southern polar region but stable altitudes of correlation regions in the equatorial and northern latitudes. The altitude variations are likely responsible for the weak correlations poleward of 60°S when multiyear or multimonth data are used.