AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF OZONE FEEDBACKS ON KELVIN AND ROSSBY-GRAVITY WAVES - EFFECTS ON THE QBO

An equatorial beta-plane model of the middle atmosphere is used to ana lytically examine the effects of radiative cooling and ozone heating o n the spatial and temporal evolution of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO). Under the assumption that the diabatic heating is weak and the background fields of wind, temperature, and ozone are slowly varying, a perturbation analysis yields expressions describing the vertical sp atial modulation of Kelvin and Rossby-gravity waves in the presence of ozone. These expressions show that wave-induced changes in the diabat ic heating arising from the advection of basic-stare ozone reduce the local radiative damping rate by up to 15% below 35 km. In a one-dimens ional model of the QBO, eddy ozone heating increases the amplitude of the zonal wind QBO by 1-2 m s(-1) and increases the oscillation period by about two months. The significance of these results to the observe d QBO is discussed.