Coherent ozone-dynamical changes during the Southern Hemisphere spring, 1979-1986

National Meteorological Center (NMC) data is used in conjunction with Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) data to study seasonal and interannual variability during the southern hemisphere springs of 1979 through 1986. Virtually perfect spatial correlation is found between October average lower stratospheric temperatures and total ozone for each year. Interannual variations and trends of stationary wave 1 heat flux in the spring lower stratosphere are found to be coherent with the observed temperature and ozone fluctuations (stationary wave 1 dominates the southern hemisphere spring stratospheric eddy fluxes). In the 1000- to 100-mbar regions, where transient wave fluxes are dominant, large differences between NMC and European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts analyses preclude trend analyses. -from Authors