Polar Vortex Hovmöller: Height–Time SSW Cross-Section

This is the vertical-structure companion to the 3D polar-vortex simulator: instead of watching air parcels orbit a single stratospheric surface, it solves the wave-mean-flow interaction as a finite-difference PDE across 26 height levels from the ground to the upper stratosphere, and plots the result as a scrolling height–time (Hovmöller) diagram — the same kind of diagnostic meteorologists read reanalysis data with. Set the wave-forcing amplitude and watch the color front propagate upward at a finite group velocity, decelerating and eventually reversing the 60°N/10 hPa wind (the formal Sudden Stratospheric Warming criterion) while the compensating warming anomaly appears aloft and diffuses downward over the following days — a distinct but physically equivalent view of the same event captured by the 3D model.