Unexpected Repartitioning of Stratospheric Inorganic Chlorine After the 2020 Australian Wildfires
Name
Geophysical Research Letters - 2022 - Strahan - Unexpected Repartitioning of Stratospheric Inorganic Chlorine After the.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
570.93 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2a5ef6b68699f9f15a8765ef73dc128c
Author(s)
Strahan, Susan E
Smale, Dan
Solomon, Susan
Taha, Ghassan
Damon, Megan R
Steenrod, Stephen D
Jones, Nicholas
Liley, Ben
Querel, Richard
Robinson, John
Date Issued
July 18, 2022
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Citation
Strahan, S. E., Smale, D., Solomon, S., Taha, G., Damon, M. R., Steenrod, S. D., et al. (2022). Unexpected repartitioning of stratospheric inorganic chlorine after the 2020 Australian wildfires. Geophysical Research Letters, 49, e2022GL098290.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The inorganic chlorine (Cly) and odd nitrogen (NOy) chemical families influence stratospheric O3. In January 2020 Australian wildfires injected record-breaking amounts of smoke into the southern stratosphere. Within 1–2 months ground-based and satellite observations showed Cly and NOy were repartitioned. By May, lower stratospheric HCl columns declined by ∼30% and ClONO2 columns increased by 40%–50%. The Cly perturbations began and ended near the equinoxes, increased poleward, and peaked at the winter solstice. NO2 decreased from February to April, consistent with sulfate aerosol reactions, but returned to typical values by June - months before the Cly recovery. Transport tracers show that dynamics not chemistry explains most of the observed O3 decrease after April, with no significant transport earlier. Simulations assuming wildfire smoke behaves identically to sulfate aerosols couldn't reproduce observed Cly changes, suggesting they have different composition and chemistry. This undermines our ability to predict ozone in a changing climate.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
10.1029/2022gl098290
