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Updated August 21st, 2020 at 18:53 IST

Equatorial Wind Patterns in Antartica reveal new connection between global circulation

Scientists recently discovered a shocking relation between Equatorial Wind Patterns and wind circulation in Antarctica. Read on to know more.

Reported by: Disha Kandpal
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A team of researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder recently observed new equatorial wind patterns in Antarctica. The team led by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) made a connection between winds at Earth’s equator and atmospheric waves 6,000 miles away at Antarctica. Researchers found evidence of what is called a "Quasi-Biennial Oscillation" (QBO) for the first time. The QBO is an atmospheric circulation pattern that originates at the equator. This discovery revealed shocking connections between the winds in deep tropics and the winds in the remote South Pole.

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Equatorial Wind Patterns & the South Pole

This discovery has recently been published as a study in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. According to the study, this discovery highlights how winds in the deep tropical areas can affect the remote South Pole. And in return, the polar vortex can trigger outbreaks of cold weather patterns in mid-latitudes. 

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How will this discovery help us?

Scientists and Geologists all over the world will be able to use this information to better their understanding of Earth’s weather and climate patterns. This can help to fuel more accurate atmospheric models. Zimu Li, who is a former CIRES researcher and the author of this study has claimed that scientists have now seen, how atmospheric pattern from the equator can affect the high latitudes of Antarctica.

This shows just how interlinked these far-away regions can be. Researchers will now be able to understand how large-scale atmospheric circulation works, and how wind patterns in one area of the world can ripple across the entire globe. Xian Lu, who is a researcher at Clemson University and a co-author of this study has claimed that before this discovery nobody really knew how the QBO impacts gravity waves in polar regions like Antarctica. This discovery will help to better the current technology for climate prediction as well.

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What did the study reveal about QBO?

According to the study, every almost every two years the QBO causes the stratospheric winds at Earth’s equator to switch directions. This leads to the alternating between easterly and westerly. Lynn Harvey, who is another co-author on the study, aided the CIRES team in understanding the polar vortices which are massive swirls of cold air that spiral over each of Earth’s poles. 

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Reports from the study have revealed that the Antarctic vortex expands during the QBO easterly phase and contracts during its westerly phase. Researchers are suspecting, when QBO changes the polar vortex behaviour, that, in turn, affects the behaviour of atmospheric waves called gravity waves. The gravity waves travel across different layers of the atmosphere. The specific kind of changes that occur in those gravity waves is that the waves are stronger during the easterly period of the QBO and during westerly. 

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Published August 21st, 2020 at 18:53 IST

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