The global diabatic circulation of the stratosphere as a metric for the Brewer–Dobson circulation

The different metrics for the circulation have different properties, especially with regards to the vertical autocorrelation. In the model, the different residual circulation metrics agree closely and are well correlated with the global diabatic circulation, except in the lowermost stratosphere. In the reanalysis products, however, there are more differences throughout, indicating the dynamical inconsistencies of these products.

The vertical velocity derived from the time series of water vapor in the tropics is significantly correlated with the global diabatic circulation, but this relationship is not as strong as that between the global diabatic circulation and the residual circulation vertical velocity. We find that the global diabatic circulation in the lower to middle stratosphere (up to 500 K) is correlated with the total column ozone in the high latitudes and in the tropics.

The upper-level circulation is also correlated with the total column ozone, primarily in the subtropics, and we show that this is due to the correlation of both the circulation and the ozone with upper-level temperatures.