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In order to investigate the radiative heating effects of aerosols during September - October, 1985, at Antarctica, researchers solved the radiative transfer equation using a one-dimensional model, which includes the absorption of solar energy by water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone and aerosols, the thermal emission and absorption by the above species and in addition, Rayleigh and Mie scattering, and the surface scattering effects. In this calculation, they used data of ozone density, water vapor density and aerosol extinction at 0.385, 0.453, 0.525 and 1.02 mu m in the stratosphere obtained by SAGE II satellite and meteorological data from NOAA. Results show that the Antarctic stratosphere is nearly in radiative equilibrium during that period, if the effects of aerosols are excluded. It is also shown that the heating effects of aerosols are too small to cause effective upward motions, in spite of some ambiguous parameters such as aerosol composition. The parameter dependences of results are also discussed.

The generation of mean zonal winds and planetary waves induced by internal gravity wave packets are investigated by numerical experiments. The numerical model is a 3-dimensional primitive equation model on the equatorial beta-plane with boundaries at the equator and North Pole. Because of equatorial boundary conditions, equatorial symmetric modes only are included in the model. Internal gravity wave packets are produced by thermal heating at the bottom boundary. Because of restriction of grid size, convective instability is parameterized by time-independent vertical and horizontal eddy viscosity. Other dissipation mechanisms (e.g., Newtonian cooling, ion drag, molecular viscosity etc.) are also included in the model.

Interference of stationary and traveling waves of sufficiently large amplitude can cause vacillations in the instantaneous EP-flux and its divergence. Such fluctuations may provide an explanation for some of the vacillations in transport and in the mean flow observed in the stratosphere. While there has been a focus on a simple two-component system, in reality several spectral components are likely to be present. For sufficiently large mean flow deceleration, the local wave field and the quasi-linear description developed here would presumably break down.

Waves are treated with a normal mode structure in order to determine the steady mean motion of the atmosphere that can be induced by dissipating equatorial waves. A model is developed which comprises a continuously stratified atmosphere at rest on the equatorial beta-plane. It is assumed that waves are excited by the corrugated bottom and are in a steady state, that dissipation is due to Newtonian cooling and Rayleigh friction, steadiness in wave magnitude is up to the second order, the waves have a long wave length, wave induced mean flows do not affect the waves, mean flows are steady, and dissipation mechanisms for the mean flows are the same as for the waves. Disturbance equations are formulated, along with Eulerian- and Lagrangian-mean flows, and the nonexistence of cross equatorial mean flows is demonstrated. Kelvin waves are shown to possess a Lagrangian-mean meridional circulation which is the same as the Eulerian-mean circulation. In the Boussinesq limit, however, neither the Eulerian- nor the Lagrangian-mean meridional circulations are caused by Kelvin waves. Further examination is made of Rossby-gravity waves and n = 1 westward propagating inertio-gravity waves.

The Eulerian- and the Lagrangian-mean flows induced by stationary, dissipating planetary waves are discussed by employing a simple channel model on a beta-plane. It is assumed that the wave is excited by the bottom undulation and dissipated by Newtonian cooling with relaxation time alpha and by Rayleigh friction with (lambda)(alpha), lambda being constant. Three cases where lambda is equal to one are discussed: (1) the basic zonal wind U sub 0 and the dissipation rate alpha are both constant; (2) U sub 0 varies with height while alpha is constant; and (3) U sub 0 and alpha both vary with height. In case (1), the Eulerian- and the Lagrangian-mean fields are shown to depend on the difference between the dissipation scale-height and the density scale-height. In case (2) and case (3), it is shown that the results for case (1) are modified under slightly more realistic situations.