Eddy heat flux convergence in the troposphere and its effect on the meridional circulation and ozone distribution

In this study the vertical convergence of the eddy heat flux, found as a forcing term in the thermodynamic energy equation of the transformed Eulerian mean formulation, is estimated in the troposphere and in the lower stratosphere from climatological data. Results show that while the heating rates caused by these eddy effects are small in the stratosphere they may play an important role in tropospheric circulation. The eddy-caused additions to the forcing field are seen as a region of significant cooling in the midlatitudes at the midtroposphere level and of weak heating throughout the tropical region. In addition, the heating due to meridional heat flux is found to dominate compared to heating due to the vertical heat flux. To study circulation changes, the residual mean circulation is calculated with and without the estimated eddy heating effects. -from Authors