ACPD Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ACPD Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss. 1680-7375 Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acpd-6-11299-2006 Interannual variability and long term changes in planetary wave activity in the middle atmosphere observed by lidar Hauchecorne A. 1 Keckhut P. 1 Chanin M. L. 1 Service d’Aéronomie/IPSL, CNRS, UVSQ, UPMC, France 14 11 2006 6 6 11299 11316 Copyright: © 2006 A. Hauchecorne et al. 2006 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ This article is available from https://acp.copernicus.org/preprints/6/11299/2006/acpd-6-11299-2006.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://acp.copernicus.org/preprints/6/11299/2006/acpd-6-11299-2006.pdf

The upwelling planetary wave activity (PW) from the troposphere controls the intensity of the equator to pole transport of stratospheric ozone by the Brewer-Dobson circulation and thereby modulates the total ozone content at mid- and high-latitudes. Rayleigh lidar temperature data obtained from 1981 to 2001 at mid-latitude were used to study the interannual variability of PW activity in winter (October to April). The spectrum of stratospheric temperature fluctuations exhibits 2 peaks corresponding to 2 dominant modes of free travelling Rossby waves known as 16 day- and 12 day-waves. The 12 day-wave activity is shown to be anticorrelated with the equatorial QBO wind at 40 hPa. During the period 1981–2000 the global PW activity shows a negative trend for months October to January and a positive trend in March and April.