Stratospheric dynamics north of 40°N

Kinetic energy in middle and high latitudes, at levels above 20 km, increases throughout winter until the final warming, which supports the view that frictional dissipation is dynamically unimportant at these levels. A climatology of wave disturbances is presented for the years 1958‐61, little support being found for a special role for bipolarity in instability. Comments are made on the pronounced layer structure shown in the wind profiles and the regular ozone‐sonde records. It is suggested that the next stages of research in stratospheric meteorology should be directed towards the layer structure.