Smoke-charged vortex doubles hemispheric aerosol in the middle stratosphere and buffers ozone depletion.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38996024.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.adn3657 and PMC identifier 11244531.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Australian mega-wildfires in the summer of 2019-2020 injected smoke into the stratosphere, causing strong ozone depletion in the lower stratosphere. Here, we model the smoke plume and reproduce its unexpected trajectory toward the middle stratosphere at ~35-kilometer altitude. We show that a smoke-charged vortex (SCV) induced and maintained by absorbing aerosols played a key role in lofting pollutants from the lower stratosphere and nearly doubled the southern hemispheric aerosol burden in the middle stratosphere. The SCV caused a redistribution of stratospheric aerosols, which boosted heterogeneous chemistry in the middle stratosphere and enhanced ozone production, compensating for up to 70% of the ozone depletion in the lower stratosphere. As global warming continues, we expect a growing frequency and importance of SCVs in promoting the impacts of wildfires on stratospheric aerosols and chemistry.