Paul Beckwith on the polar vortex and the jet stream

Jet Stream Love Affair with Stratospheric Polar Vortex

Human experience with weather is all within the lower atmosphere (troposphere). Above this is the stratosphere, where the protective ozone layer resides. Near the borderline (tropopause) jet streams (aka Rossby Waves or Tropospheric Polar Vortices) circumvent the planet, dividing cold dry polar air from hot moist equatorial derived air, and guiding storms. Much less well known is the Stratospheric Polar Vortex that crucially interacts with the jet streams affecting surface weather, and vice versa.