Traveling planetary waves in the stratosphere

This paper reviews the theory and observations of some traveling planetary waves in the stratosphere. Two categories of waves which appear prominently in the literature are discussed: westward propagating waves of periods in the range 3–7 days (the 5-day wave) and in the range 10–20 days (the 16-day wave). Although the observations seem to indicate that these waves are waves of the Rossby type (planetary waves), the evidence is less clear regarding (1) the question of whether these waves are forced internal waves or free (resonant) external waves, and (2) the identification of the observed waves with specific theoretical waves of the Rossby type. When recent observations are compared with theory, the evidence seems to favor the notion that the 5-day and 16-day waves of longitudinal wave number 1 may be identified, respectively, with the gravest and next gravest symmetric free Rossby modes. However, the observational evidence seems to be less clear regarding the nature of the 16-day wave than the 5-day wave.