Abstract ATM-9410277 Salby, Murry Atmospheric Systems and Analysis Title: Interdecadal Variability in the Stratosphere: Its Relationship to QBO, Solar Activity, and Biennial Variability in the Troposphere Correlations between North Polar temperature and equatorial wind in the stratosphere exhibit interannual variations that on the surface, appear to be related to the 11-year cycle of sunspot activity. Resembling variability in North Pole temperature when data are stratified according to the phase of the QBO, the polar- tropical correlation suggests a physical connection to interannual variability of solar activity. Signatures of interannual variability in actual records of stratospheric behavior will be studied to establish the physical significance of interdecadal signatures and their relationship to solar activity. The same investigation will be performed on monthly-mean records of temperature and motion. The sampling will then be systematically degraded and stratified according to the phase of the QBO to determine how much of the interdecadal signatures in polar temperature and in correlation with the tropics follows from actual solar variability and how much follows from aliasing by the QBO. Preliminary analysis indicates that biennial variability, which is also present in the polar stratosphere, figures importantly in producing the interdecadal variation of tropical-polar correlation. As large as quasi-biennial variability in the polar stratosphere, biennial variability represents an important component of interannual variability and therefore is important in its own right. Biennial variations will be diagnosed first in the stratosphere in global records of temperature and motion. Once understood in the circulation, the biennial variation will be examined in ozone. Biennial variability will then be traced back to the troposphere, where it will be diagnosed in analyses of motion and cloud cover. This investigation will be explored in the zon al-mean properties. Eventually, biennial variability will be explored in the zonally-asymmetric wave field, which in the Eliassen-Palm flux, will be diagnosed as an agent for communicating biennial variations from tropical convection in the troposphere to the extratropical stratosphere. This research is important because it seeks to add knowledge about a controversial topic in sun-climate relationship.
