Abstract
For the radiosonde station De But, The Netherlands, it is found that after solar proton events temperatures increase in the troposphere and decrease in the lower stratosphere, being indicative of an anticyclonic tendency. This tendency turns out to be strongest for events occurring during the East phase of the QBO.
This result is consistent with the association between the 11-year solar cycle, the QBO and the lower atmosphere over Europe, as recently published by Labitzke and VAN LOON. It is likely therefore that the long-term association consists of the cumulative effect of a number of individual solar events, which are more frequent during the maximum of the 11-year cycle. This may help to find the physical mechanism (s) at work in the solar-climate relationship. The possibility of solar induced thermal effects at tropopause level is suggested in the paper.
