Effects of the 11-year solar cycle on the Earth atmosphere revealed in ECMWF reanalyses

Abstract

We analyzed the averages and differences of the time-mean fields for the positive and negative anomaly years of southerlies for the area between 20°W-60°W and 5°S-5°N, reproduced from the three harmonics near the 11-year solar cycle. In the positive years of the southerlies or sunspots, the intensification of convection reduced the ozone-mixing ratio in the tropical troposphere. Such intensification might accompany the expansion of the area subjected to convection and/or the increase of the height and strength of individual convections. Relative humidity increases in the surface layer and near the tropical tropopause level. Our results provide a support for the effects of the solar cycle on the troposphere through the convection that affects the phase change of water vapor in thetropical atmosphere as well as rather direct impacts on the tropical stratosphere ozone. The tropical Atlantic decadal oscillation has a three-dimensional structure extending through the entire depth of troposphere. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.