Global middle atmosphere response to winter stratospheric variability in SABER and MLS mean temperature

Satellite observations of middle atmosphere temperature are used to investigate the shortterm global response to planetary wave activity in the winter stratosphere. The focus is on the relation between variations in the winter and summer hemispheres. The analysis uses observations from Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (TIMED SABER) for 2002 - 2021 and Microwave Limb Sounder (Aura MLS) for 2004 - 2021, and reanalysis temperatures and winds from MERRA-2 for 2002 - 2021. We calculate temporal correlations of the Eliassen-Palm flux divergence in the winter stratosphere with global temperature. Results show a robust perturbation extending to midlatitudes of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) stratosphere during Northern Hemisphere (NH) winter. An increase in wave forcing is followed by a decrease in temperatures over the depth of the stratosphere in the SH, peaking at a lag of three days. Summer mesospheric temperature perturbations of the opposite sign are seen in many winters. Comparable signals in the NH summer middle atmosphere are present during some SH winters but are weaker and less consistent than those in the SH during NH winter. A diagnostic evaluation of the patterns of correlation, the mesospheric zonal winds, and the stability criteria suggests that the temperature perturbations in the midlatitude summer mesosphere are more closely associated with the summer stratosphere directly below than with the wave activity in the winter stratosphere. This suggests that the inter-hemispheric coupling in the stratosphere is driving or contributing to the coupling between the winter stratosphere and the summer mesosphere that has been reported in several investigations.