Long-term variations in the stratosphere of northern hemisphere during the last two sunspot cycles

Stratospheric geopotential height and temperature data of three levels are examined for the period 1957--1979. By using a low-pass filter for each time series at a 100-by-100 latitude-longitude grid, long-term variations over the northern hemisphere are obtained, whose amplitudes and phases depend on latitude and longitude as well as on the height level. Analyses of differences between sunspot maximum and minimum are made, looking for a possible solar relationship. It cannot be proved that convincing statistical evidence exists for such relationships because of the few degrees of freedom in the highly autocorrelated data series. However, these hemispheric analyses are presented in the hope that they may help lead to an understanding of relations, if they do exist, that can be supported on physical, rather than statistical, grounds