Long period atmospheric oscillations in the troposphere and lower and middle stratosphere over Hyderabad

Abstract

The monthly mean values of zonal and meridional winds for seventeen years over a tropical station, Hyderabad (17.2°N;78.2° E) have been used to study the characteristics of long period atmospheric oscillations, the QBO, AO, SAO and

TAO, in the altitude range 7 - 32 km. Since the period of the data includes two solar maxima and one solar minimum the solar activity effects on various atmospheric parameters have been investigated. The annual oscillation in zonal wind is found to be strongly correlated with solar activity, whereas the prevailing zonal wind shows poor correlation. The correlation of solar activity with meridional wind parameters is also found to be very poor. The period of QBO and its heights of maxima are found to be affected by solar activity variation, whereas its amplitude is not.