The rôle of planetary waves in the formation of polar stratospheric clouds

H. Teitelbaum; R. Sadourny

doi:10.3402/tellusa.v50i3.14528

The rôle of planetary waves in the formation of polar stratospheric clouds

Tellus

Volume 50 (1998): Issue 3

By: H. Teitelbaum and R. Sadourny

Open Access

|Jan 1998

Abstract

Several recent works attribute the formation of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) to the occurrenceof localized orographic waves. Using ECMWF analyses, we investigate the large scalestratospheric flow conditions in a number of cases where PSCs have been detected, both in theArctic and in the Antarctic. We show that PSCs appear within strong planetary scale uplifts ofisentropic surfaces. The adiabatic cooling of air parcels travelling within such planetary scaleuplifts while conserving their humidity and trace constituents, seems to be the main mechanismfor PSC formation. The PSC distribution would then follow a planetary structure, even thoughlocal orographic waves could still play an additional role when planetary scale conditionsare met.

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