The Stratosphere : Phenomena, History and Relevance

Describes the discovery of the stratosphere itself and of various unexpected phenomena in the stratosphere, such as: a manned balloon flight in 1901 as high as 11 km; and an expedition to Lake Victoria in Africa in 1908 which found inexplicable west winds in the stratosphere above the equator.

1 Berlin and the Stratosphere.- 1.1 The first meteorological observations.- 1.2 The exploration of the free atmosphere.- 1.2.1 Manned balloon flights.- 1.2.2 Unmanned instrumented balloons.- 1.3 The discovery of the stratosphere.- 1.4 The Royal Prussian Aeronautical Observatory at Lindenberg.- 1.4.1 The discovery of the Berson westerlies above the equator.- 1.5 The Institute of Meteorology at the Freie Universität Berlin.- 1.5.1 The discovery of the Berlin Phenomenon.- 1.5.2 The first climatology of the stratosphere on the Northern Hemisphere.- 1.5.3 The first daily weather maps of the stratosphere.- 1.5.4 The discovery of the solar signal in the stratosphere.- Literature.- 2 A Brief Description of the Stratospheric Climate.- 2.1 What kind of data is available today?.- 2.2 Mean conditions in the stratosphere.- 2.2.1 The global temperatures.- 2.2.2 The global winds.- 2.2.3 The global circulation in the stratosphere.- 2.2.4 Monthly mean maps of the Northern Hemisphere.- 2.2.5 Monthly mean maps of the Southern Hemisphere.- 2.3 Variability and trends.- 2.3.1 Interannual variability of temperature.- 2.3.2 Temperature trends in the stratosphere.- Literature.- 3 Warm and Cold Winters in the Stratosphere.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Synoptic description of a major midwinter warming.- 3.2.1 Classification of the stratospheric warmings.- 3.2.2 The Major Midwinter Warming in the winter of 1990-1991.- 3.2.3 The typical development of a stratospheric warming.- 3.3 Associations.- 3.3.1 The Southern Oscillation (SO).- 3.3.2 The Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO).- 3.3.3 The solar signal in the northern winter.- 3.3.4 Volcanoes and cold winters in the stratosphere..- 3.4 A comparison between the Arctic and Antarctic.- 3.5 Model experiments.- Literature.- 4 The Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO).- 4.1 Early observations.- 4.2 The discovery of the QBO in the equatorial stratosphere..- 4.3 Our present concept of the QBO.- 4.4 The connection between the QBO and high northern latitudes.- Literature.- 5 The Ozone Layer.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Early observations.- 5.2.1 Dobson''s early network of observations.- 5.2.2 The amount of ozone above Tromsö.- 5.3 The natural distribution of total ozone.- 5.4 Loss of stratospheric ozone caused by man.- 5.4.1 Catalytic destruction of ozone.- 5.4.2 The antarctic ozone hole.- 5.4.3 Trends in the ozone content of the atmosphere.- 5.4.4 Measures adopted to reduce chlorine.- Literature.- 6 The 11-Year Sunspot Cycle and the Stratosphere.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 The solar signal in the stratosphere during the year.- 6.2.1 The Northern Hemisphere.- 6.2.2 The Southern Hemisphere.- 6.2.3 Global correlations.- 6.3 Is there a connection to the tropical troposphere?.- 6.4 Total ozone and the 11-year sunspot cycle.- 6.5 In search of a physical-dynamical mechanism.- Literature.- 7 Final Remarks.- 7.1 A summary.- 7.2 Is the stratosphere relevant to our climate?.- 7.3 The unexpected.- Table of Boxes.