The coupling between stratosphere and troposphere (ST) has been studied
extensively using simple circulation models. It is known that the ozone-rich
stratosphere interact with the troposphere through both radiative and
dynamical processes. However, many of the models used in these studies
only assume a slab ocean with a fixed sea surface temperature (SST) profile.
To investigate the role of the ocean in the stratosphere-troposphere coupling,
a fully coupled atmosphere-ocean model, FORTE (Fast Ocean Rapid
Troposphere Experiment) is used in this study. In this project the Earth is
modelled as a perfect sphere with its surface covered with water. In the first
set of our experiments we introduce a perturbation to the stratosphere by
increasing ozone concentration by a factor of five. In the second experiment
we repeat the ozone perturbation experiment with a fixed SST profile such
that the atmosphere-ocean coupling is shut off.
Our results demonstrate that by including a dynamical ocean, the strength
of the jet streams is less sensitive to stratospheric ozone perturbations
whereas the extent of their latitudinal displacements is greater. Both of
these are found to be a consequence of SST anomalies induced by ocean
dynamics. On the other hand, our results show that in the presence of an
interactive ocean, there is a general increase in tropospheric air temperature
except for polar regions, while lacking the banded anomaly pattern observed
in our fixed SST experiment and other ST coupling studies.