ON THE PHASE PROPAGATION OF EXTRATROPICAL OZONE QUASI-BIENNIAL OSCILLATION IN OBSERVATIONAL DATA

Global column ozone data from total ozone mapping spectrometer (TOMS), backscattered ultraviolet (BUV) and Dobson stations are analyzed to determine the pattern and phase property of the ozone quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) signal. It is found that the ozone QBO signal is strongest in middle and high latitudes and is present mainly in the winter-spring season in both hemispheres. The extratropical ozone QBO signal is out of phase with the equatorial ozone QBO, which is itself in phase with the QBO in equatorial zonal wind. There are three;distinctive regions, namely tropical, midlatitudinal, and polar regions, in each of which the ozone QBO signal has a fairly constant phase with respect to latitude. There is a phase reversal (sign change) between the equatorial and the extratropical regions associated with the return branch of the equatorial QBO secondary circulation, and this sign reversal occurs at +/- 12 degrees of latitude symmetric about the equator. In the northern hemisphere between the midlatitudinal and polar regions, there is another possible phase reversal in some (but not all) years possibly in connection with the presence or absence of midwinter sudden warming, which creates a positive or negative anomaly relative to the region outside the polar vortex. In the southern hemisphere polar latitudes, the ozone QBO signal is usually delayed until spring in connection with the final warming. These properties are found in all data sets analyzed by the same method. Evidence does not support a gradual phase propagation from the subtropical region to the high-latitude region. Previous reported evidence for phase propagation is reexamined and is found to be artifacts of data processing.