2019-2020 Australian bushfires comparable to volcanic eruption
A new paper has found that the bushfires during the 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season were so bad that the impact on the stratosphere was comparable to that from a moderate volcanic eruption.
The paper found that smoke was lifted up to some 35 km above the surface.
The bushfire smoke had triggered the formation of an ozone hole associated with a highly resilient vortex that formed in response to solar radiation interaction with the bushfire smoke in the stratosphere.
The injection of aerosols into the stratosphere was on par with the strongest volcanic eruptions in the past 25 years the paper says.
The study found that the injection of aerosols into the stratosphere had a noticeable effect on radiative forcing, with the effect on top of atmosphere radiative forcing larger than that produced by all wildfire events and moderate volcanic eruptions over the past 3 decades.
Trajectory of the midlatitude ozone hole induced by bushfire smoke injected into the stratosphere:
The paper found that smoke was lifted up to some 35 km above the surface.
The bushfire smoke had triggered the formation of an ozone hole associated with a highly resilient vortex that formed in response to solar radiation interaction with the bushfire smoke in the stratosphere.
The injection of aerosols into the stratosphere was on par with the strongest volcanic eruptions in the past 25 years the paper says.
The study found that the injection of aerosols into the stratosphere had a noticeable effect on radiative forcing, with the effect on top of atmosphere radiative forcing larger than that produced by all wildfire events and moderate volcanic eruptions over the past 3 decades.
Trajectory of the midlatitude ozone hole induced by bushfire smoke injected into the stratosphere:
Satellite loop of pyrocumulonimbus clouds injecting aerosols into the stratosphere on December 31 2019: