On the stratospheric chemistry of midlatitude wildfire smoke
Name
pnas.2117325119.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.68 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
e1b0f70996c145976eb65f1bd687fe81
Author(s)
Solomon, Susan
Dube, Kimberlee
Stone, Kane
Yu, Pengfei
Kinnison, Doug
Toon, Owen B
Strahan, Susan E
Rosenlof, Karen H
Portmann, Robert
Davis, Sean
Date Issued
2022
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Citation
Solomon, Susan, Dube, Kimberlee, Stone, Kane, Yu, Pengfei, Kinnison, Doug et al. 2022. "On the stratospheric chemistry of midlatitude wildfire smoke." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119 (10).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Significance
Large wildfires have been observed to inject smoke into the stratosphere, raising questions about their potential to affect the stratospheric ozone layer that protects life on Earth from biologically damaging ultraviolet radiation. Multiple observations of aerosol and NO 2 concentrations from three independent satellite instruments are used here together with model calculations to identify decreases in stratospheric NO 2 concentrations following major Australian 2019 through 2020 wildfires. The data confirm that important chemistry did occur on the smoke particle surfaces. The observed behavior in NO 2 with increasing particle concentrations is a marker for surface chemistry that contributes to midlatitude ozone depletion. The results indicate that increasing wildfire activity in a warming world may slow the recovery of the ozone layer.
Large wildfires have been observed to inject smoke into the stratosphere, raising questions about their potential to affect the stratospheric ozone layer that protects life on Earth from biologically damaging ultraviolet radiation. Multiple observations of aerosol and NO 2 concentrations from three independent satellite instruments are used here together with model calculations to identify decreases in stratospheric NO 2 concentrations following major Australian 2019 through 2020 wildfires. The data confirm that important chemistry did occur on the smoke particle surfaces. The observed behavior in NO 2 with increasing particle concentrations is a marker for surface chemistry that contributes to midlatitude ozone depletion. The results indicate that increasing wildfire activity in a warming world may slow the recovery of the ozone layer.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.2117325119
