A new pathway for communicating the 11-year solar cycle signal to the QBO

[1] The response of the equatorial quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) to zonal-mean ozone perturbations consistent with the 11-year solar cycle is examined using a 2=2 dimensional model of the tropical stratosphere. Unique to this model are wave-ozone feedbacks, which provide a new, nonlinear pathway for communicating solar variability effects to the QBO. Model simulations show that for zonal-mean ozone perturbations representative of solar maximum (minimum), the diabatic heating due to the waveozone feedbacks is primarily responsible for driving a slightly stronger (weaker) QBO circulation and producing a slightly shorter (longer) QBO period. These results, which are explained via an analytical analysis of the divergence of Eliassen-palm flux, are in general agreement with observations of quasi-decadal variability of the QBO. Citation: Cordero, E. C., and T. R. Nathan (2005), A new pathway for communicating the 11-year solar cycle signal to the QBO, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L18805, doi:10.1029/ 2005GL023696.