Articles | Volume 22, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3967-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3967-2022
Research article
 | 
28 Mar 2022
Research article |  | 28 Mar 2022

Five-satellite-sensor study of the rapid decline of wildfire smoke in the stratosphere

Bengt G. Martinsson, Johan Friberg, Oscar S. Sandvik, and Moa K. Sporre

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Cited articles

Ammann, C. M., Meehl, G. A., Washington, W. M., and Zender, C. S.: A monthly and latitudinally varying volcanic forcing dataset in simulations of 20th century climate, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, 1567–1661, https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL016875, 2003. 
Andersson, S. M., Martinsson, B. G., Friberg, J., Brenninkmeijer, C. A. M., Rauthe-Schöch, A., Hermann, M., van Velthoven, P. F. J., and Zahn, A.: Composition and evolution of volcanic aerosol from eruptions of Kasatochi, Sarychev and Eyjafjallajökull in 2008–2010 based on CARIBIC observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 1781–1796, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-1781-2013, 2013. 
Andersson, S. M., Martinsson, B. G., Vernier, J. P., Friberg, J., Brenninkmeijer, C. A. M., Hermann, M., Van Velthoven, P. F. J., and Zahn, A.: Significant radiative impact of volcanic aerosol in the lowermost stratosphere, Nat. Commun., 6, 7692, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8692, 2015. 
Ansmann, A., Baars, H., Chudnovsky, A., Mattis, I., Veselovskii, I., Haarig, M., Seifert, P., Engelmann, R., and Wandinger, U.: Extreme levels of Canadian wildfire smoke in the stratosphere over central Europe on 21–22 August 2017, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 11831–11845, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11831-2018, 2018. 
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Short summary
Large amounts of wildfire smoke reached the stratosphere in 2017. The literature on stratospheric aerosol is mainly based on horizontally viewing sensors that saturate in dense smoke. Using also a vertically viewing sensor with orders of magnitude shorter path in the smoke, we show that the horizontally viewing sensors miss a dramatic exponential decline of the aerosol load with a half-life of 10 d, where 80 %–90 % of smoke is lost. We attribute the decline to photolytic loss of organic aerosol.
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