On data sources and quality for the Southern Hemisphere stratosphere

Abstract

A brief review is presented of current operational analysis systems for the Southern Hemisphere stratosphere, concentrating on the systems used at the National Meteorological Center (USA) and the British Meteorological Office. An assessment is made of two major sources of error in these current analyses; the tropospheric analyses used at the base-level and the thickness analyses derived from satellite radiance data. Some results on the impact of different base-level analyses on derived stratosphere circulation statistics in the Southern Hemisphere are described. The reliability of analyses obtained from satellite data is assessed by sampling a numerical model simualtion of the stratosphere a..