ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-8-4677-2008 Mesoscale temperature fluctuations in the Southern Hemisphere stratosphere Gary B. L. 1 2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA 5320 E. Calle Manzana, Hereford, AZ 85615-9514, USA 14 08 2008 8 16 4677 4681 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/4677/2008/acp-8-4677-2008.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/4677/2008/acp-8-4677-2008.pdf

Isentrope surfaces in the Southern Hemisphere stratosphere reveal that air parcels undergo mesoscale temperature fluctuations that depend on latitude and season. The largest temperature fluctuations occur at high latitude winter, whereas the smallest fluctuations occur at high latitude summer. This is the same pattern found for the Northern Hemisphere stratosphere. However, the amplitude of the seasonal dependence in the Southern Hemisphere is only 37% of the Northern Hemisphere's seasonal amplitude.

 References Gary, B. L.: Mesoscale temperature fluctuations in the stratosphere, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 4577–4589, 2006.