A NOTE ON RECORD-HIGH TEMPERATURES AT THE NORTHERN POLAR STRATOPAUSE IN WINTER 1997 98/

A series of lidar temperature soundings from the ALOMAR observatory in northern Norway indicated an extreme warming of a descending stratopa use in February 1998. The maximum temperature recorded during this eve nt was +49 degrees C at 40 km altitude. This stratospheric warming is described by means of SSU satellite radiance data and of stratospheric analyses from the Free University Berlin. Comparisons are made to a n umber of historical events with similar temperature observations from rocket soundings and to results from the Berlin general circulation mo del. It turns out that in all cases the highest stratopause temperatur es occur close to the 40 km altitude level.