Identification

Title

Smoke-charged vortex doubles hemispheric aerosol in the middle stratosphere and buffers ozone depletion

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 similar to 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.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d71c2235

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2024-07-12T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact