What is a Sudden Stratospheric Warming?

[Robbie Garrett]

Posted today by the Met Office.

You may have heard talk of the UK possibly seeing some colder weather next week and that ‘things going on’ in the upper atmosphere may be playing a part. The ‘thing’ happening in the atmosphere is known as Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW).

When it does happen, it attracts a lot of interest in the UK because it is sometimes linked to the onset of cold weather in winter. Here we shed a little bit more light on the phenomenon.

http://metofficenews.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/what-is-a-sudden-stratospheric-warming-ssw/

[chionomaniac]

Good to see that Adam Scaife confirmed that the process of heating was adiabatic as the wave breaking descends. I remember discussion about this in the strat thread earlier in the year.