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Abstract. The effects of wave–wave interactions on sudden stratospheric warming formation are investigated using an idealized atmospheric general circulation model, in which tropospheric heating perturbations of zonal wave numbers 1 and 2 are used to produce planetary-scale wave activity. Zonal wave–wave interactions are removed at different vertical extents of the atmosphere in order to examine the sensitivity of stratospheric circulation to local changes in wave–wave interactions. We show that the effects of wave–wave interactions on sudden warming formation, including sudden warming frequencies, are strongly dependent on the wave number of the tropospheric forcing and the vertical levels where wave–wave interactions are removed. Significant changes in sudden warming frequencies are evident when wave–wave interactions are removed even when the lower-stratospheric wave forcing does not change, highlighting the fact that the upper stratosphere is not a passive recipient of wave forcing from below. We find that while wave–wave interactions are required in the troposphere and lower stratosphere to produce displacements when wave number 2 heating is used, both splits and displacements can be produced without wave–wave interactions in the troposphere and lower stratosphere when the model is forced by wave number 1 heating. We suggest that the relative strengths of wave number 1 and 2 vertical wave flux entering the stratosphere largely determine the split and displacement ratios when wave number 2 forcing is used but not wave number 1. 

Abstract Recent work suggests that storm track diagnostics such as eddy heat fluxes and eddy kinetic energies have very small signatures in the first annular mode of zonal mean zonal wind, suggesting a lack of co‐variability between the locations of the extratropical jet and storm tracks. The frequency‐dependence of this apparent decoupling is explored in ERA‐Interim reanalysis data. The annular modes show similar spatial characteristics in the different frequency ranges considered. Cancellation between the signatures of storm track diagnostics in the leading low‐pass and high‐pass filtered annular modes is evident, partly explaining their small signature in the total. It is shown that at timescales greater than 30 days, the first zonal wind mode describes latitudinal shifts of both the midlatitude jet and its associated storm tracks, and it appears that the persistence of zonal wind anomalies is sustained primarily by a baroclinic feedback. 

Abstract Superpressure balloon data of unprecedented coverage from Loon LLC is used to investigate the seasonal and latitudinal variability of lower stratospheric gravity waves over the entire intrinsic frequency spectrum. We show that seasonal variability in both gravity wave amplitudes and spectral slopes exist for a wide range of intrinsic frequencies and provide estimates of spectral slopes in five latitudinal regions for all four seasons, in five different frequency windows. The spectral slopes can be used to infer gravity wave amplitudes of intrinsic frequencies as high as 70 cycles/day from gravity waves resolved in model and reanalysis data. We also show that a robust relationship between the phase of the quasi‐biennial oscillation and gravity wave amplitudes exists for intrinsic frequencies as high as the buoyancy frequency. These are the first estimates of seasonal and latitudinal variability of gravity wave spectral slopes and high‐frequency amplitudes and constitute a significant step toward obtaining observationally constrained gravity wave parameterizations in climate models.