OBSERVED CORRELATIONS BETWEEN WINTER-MEAN TROPOSPHERIC AND STRATOSPHERIC CIRCULATION ANOMALIES

It is shown that interannual variability of the northern winter strato spheric flow in 1964-1993 was closely linked to large-scale circulatio n anomalies in the middle troposphere. Of the known tropospheric telec onnection patterns, the one having the strongest relation to the DJF z onal-mean stratospheric flow was the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Singular value decomposition between the 500 and 50-hPa geopotential heights produced a 500-hPa structure containing elements of the NAO pa ttern, but including an anomaly in eastern Siberia. During this time p eriod, the correlation of NAO-related modes to the polar lower stratos phere exceeded that of the equatorial quasi-biennial oscillation.