The Time Lapse of the Zonal Mean Atmosphere
This animation shows the time evolution of the zonal mean (contours), temperature (colored shading), and the residual mean meridional circulation (arrows) from January 1979 to December 2018. The westerly winds are indicated by solid contours, while dashed contours show the easterly winds. The global mean temperature has been removed at each vertical level from the temperature field. The arrows in the troposphere are shown to be thicker because they are 10 times stronger than the stratospheric arrows at the same length. This animation is made using the high resolution version of the ERA5 reanalysis dataset. It is based on 6-hourly data that are smoothed by a 30-day running mean. Almost 14,500 plots are put together to make this animation.