The ability of analyses from the National Meteorological Center and the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts to depict the dynamics of the high latitude Southern Hemisphere lower stratosphere is examined by considering time series of daily values of a meridional eddy heat flux term at 100 mb during 1986. Both analyses yield series of this quantity that although highly variable are nevertheless well correlated with each other. Coupled with the credible spatial structure of the heat flux field in the analyses, this agreement offers support for the realism of the eddy heat flux calculations. Despite the possible presence of low-frequency problems in the analyses, we conclude that they are adequate for studying important atmospheric phenomena that occur in this region of the Southern Hemisphere at sub-monthly time scales. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1990