Jones, D. B. A., H. R. Schneider, and M. B. McElroy, An Analysis of the Mechanisms for the QBO in Ozone in the Tropical and Subtropical Lower Stratosphere , submitted to J. Geopys. Res. , 1998. It has been suggested that vertical advection is the predominant process responsible for the QBO signal in ozone in the lower stratosphere. However, if the anomalies in ozone are forced primarily by vertical advection, one would expect variations in temperature and ozone to be a quarter of a cycle out of phase.
Observations show that the anomalies are approximately in phase.
We show that both horizontal and vertical advection of ozone contribute significantly to the QBO in ozone and are primarily responsible for the approximate in-phase relationship between the anomalies in ozone and temperature. Photochemistry plays an important role in damping the anomalies in ozone, but makes only a minor contribution to the phase shift between ozone and temperature, as does the influence of the anomalies in ozone on net rates for diabatic heating. In the subtropics the seasonal dependence of meridional transport of ozone by the QBO circulation produces a frequency spectrum of anomalies, in agreement with observation, with peaks at three frequencies corresponding to the QBO and the sum and difference of the QBO and annual frequencies.