Dynamical evolution of a minor sudden stratospheric warming in the Southern Hemisphere in 2019

Abstract. This study analyzes the Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA-55) dataset from 2002 to 2019 to examine the sudden stratospheric warming event that occurred in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) in 2019 (hereafter referred to as SSW2019). Strong warming at the polar cap and decelerated westerly winds were observed, but since there was no reversal of westerly winds to easterly winds at 60° S in the middle to lower stratosphere, the SSW2019 is classified as a minor warming event. The results show that quasi-stationary planetary waves of zonal wavenumber 1 developed during the SSW2019. The strong vertical component of the Eliassen–Palm flux with zonal wavenumber 1 is indicative of pronounced propagation of planetary waves to the stratosphere. The wave driving in September 2019 shows that the values are larger than those of the major SSW event in 2002 (hereafter referred to as SSW2002). Since there was no pronounced preconditioning (as in SSW2002) and the polar vortex was already strong before the SSW2019 occurred, a major disturbance of the polar vortex was unlikely to have taken place. The strong wave driving in SSW2019 occurred in high latitudes. Waveguides (i.e., positive values of the refractive index) are found at high latitudes in the upper stratosphere during the warming period, which provided favorable conditions for quasi-stationary planetary waves to propagate upward and poleward.