A climatology of planetary wave-driven mesospheric inversion layers in the extratropical winter

Climatologies of long-lived extratropical winter MILs observed by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) satellite instruments are compared to MILs in the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM).

In general, MIL location, amplitude, and thickness statistics in WACCM are in good agreement with the observations, though WACCM middle- and high-latitude winter MILs occur 30%-50% more often than in MLS and SABER. This work suggests that planetary wave-driven MILs may form as high as 90 km. In the winter, MILs display a wave-1 pattern in both hemispheres, forming most often over the region where the climatological winter stratospheric anticyclones occur.