Aeolus wind lidar observations of the 2019/2020 quasi-biennial oscillation disruption with comparison to radiosondes and reanalysis

Banyard, Timothy P.; Wright, Corwin J.; Osprey, Scott M.; Hindley, Neil P.; Halloran, Gemma; Coy, Lawrence; Newman, Paul A.; Butchart, Neal; Bramberger, Martina; Alexander, M. Joan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2465-2024

Articles | Volume 24, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2465-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Aeolus data and their application (AMT/ACP/WCD inter-journal...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2465-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 24, issue 4

Research article

|

27 Feb 2024

Research article |

| 27 Feb 2024

Aeolus wind lidar observations of the 2019/2020 quasi-biennial oscillation disruption with comparison to radiosondes and reanalysis

Timothy P. Banyard, Corwin J. Wright, Scott M. Osprey, Neil P. Hindley, Gemma Halloran, Lawrence Coy, Paul A. Newman, Neal Butchart, Martina Bramberger, and M. Joan Alexander

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2465-2024-supplement

Data sets

Aeolus L2B scientific wind products: Product Type ALD_U_N_2B ESA (European Space Agency) https://aeolus-ds.eo.esa.int/oads/access/collection/L2B_Wind_Products/tree

Complete ERA5 from 1940: Fifth generation of ECMWF atmospheric reanalyses of the global climate H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.143582cf

Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA), Version 2 Imke Durre et al. https://doi.org/10.7289/V5X63K0Q

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Short summary

In 2019/2020, the tropical stratospheric wind phenomenon known as the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) was disrupted for only the second time in the historical record. This was poorly forecasted, and we want to understand why. We used measurements from the first Doppler wind lidar in space, Aeolus, to observe the disruption in an unprecedented way. Our results reveal important differences between Aeolus and the ERA5 reanalysis that affect the timing of the disruption's onset and its evolution.