Atmospheric Quasi-Biennial Oscillations

Abstract

A detailed analysis has been made of a quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) in the tropospheric ultralong waves of the Southern Hemisphere and interrelationships with the QBO in zonal mean westerly winds of the equatorial stratosphere. In spite of the fact that highly significant spectral peaks at a period close to 26 months occur in both phenomena, results of cross-spectral analysis reveal that the two QBO's are unrelated. The manner in which these QBO's relate to a recently discovered QBO in the 500 mb zonal mean westerly winds throughout the Southern Hemisphere is also considered.