Articles | Volume 22, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7417-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7417-2022
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
09 Jun 2022
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 09 Jun 2022

Australian wildfire smoke in the stratosphere: the decay phase in 2020/2021 and impact on ozone depletion

Kevin Ohneiser, Albert Ansmann, Bernd Kaifler, Alexandra Chudnovsky, Boris Barja, Daniel A. Knopf, Natalie Kaifler, Holger Baars, Patric Seifert, Diego Villanueva, Cristofer Jimenez, Martin Radenz, Ronny Engelmann, Igor Veselovskii, and Félix Zamorano

Related authors

Identification of multiple co-located hydrometeor types in Doppler spectra from scanning polarimetric cloud radar observations
Majid Hajipour, Patric Seifert, Hannes Griesche, Kevin Ohneiser, and Martin Radenz
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-173,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-173, 2024
Preprint under review for AMT
Short summary
Long-term (2010–2021) lidar observations of stratospheric aerosols in Wuhan, China
Yun He, Dongzhe Jing, Zhenping Yin, Kevin Ohneiser, and Fan Yi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11431–11450, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11431-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11431-2024, 2024
Short summary
Invisible aerosol layers: improved lidar detection capabilities by means of laser-induced aerosol fluorescence
Benedikt Gast, Cristofer Jimenez, Albert Ansmann, Moritz Haarig, Ronny Engelmann, Felix Fritzsch, Athena Augusta Floutsi, Hannes Griesche, Kevin Ohneiser, Julian Hofer, Martin Radenz, Holger Baars, Patric Seifert, and Ulla Wandinger
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2586,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2586, 2024
Short summary
Impact of wildfire smoke on Arctic cirrus formation, part 1: analysis of MOSAiC 2019–2020 observations
Albert Ansmann, Cristofer Jimenez, Johanna Roschke, Johannes Bühl, Kevin Ohneiser, Ronny Engelmann, Martin Radenz, Hannes Griesche, Julian Hofer, Dietrich Althausen, Daniel A. Knopf, Sandro Dahlke, Tom Gaudek, Patric Seifert, and Ulla Wandinger
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2008,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2008, 2024
Short summary
Impact of wildfire smoke on Arctic cirrus formation, part 2: simulation of MOSAiC 2019−2020 cases
Albert Ansmann, Cristofer Jimenez, Daniel A. Knopf, Johanna Roschke, Johannes Bühl, Kevin Ohneiser, and Ronny Engelmann
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2009,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2009, 2024
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Aerosols | Research Activity: Remote Sensing | Altitude Range: Stratosphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Long-term (2010–2021) lidar observations of stratospheric aerosols in Wuhan, China
Yun He, Dongzhe Jing, Zhenping Yin, Kevin Ohneiser, and Fan Yi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11431–11450, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11431-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11431-2024, 2024
Short summary
OMPS-LP Aerosol Extinction Coefficients And Their Applicability in GloSSAC
Mahesh Kovilakam, Larry Thomason, Magali Verkerk, Thomas Aubry, and Travis Knepp
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2409,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2409, 2024
Short summary
Evidence of a dual African and Australian biomass burning influence on the vertical distribution of aerosol and carbon monoxide over the southwest Indian Ocean basin in early 2020
Nelson Bègue, Alexandre Baron, Gisèle Krysztofiak, Gwenaël Berthet, Corinna Kloss, Fabrice Jégou, Sergey Khaykin, Marion Ranaivombola, Tristan Millet, Thierry Portafaix, Valentin Duflot, Philippe Keckhut, Hélène Vérèmes, Guillaume Payen, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Pierre-François Coheur, Cathy Clerbaux, Michaël Sicard, Tetsu Sakai, Richard Querel, Ben Liley, Dan Smale, Isamu Morino, Osamu Uchino, Tomohiro Nagai, Penny Smale, John Robinson, and Hassan Bencherif
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8031–8048, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8031-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8031-2024, 2024
Short summary
Does the Asian summer monsoon play a role in the stratospheric aerosol budget of the Arctic?
Sandra Graßl, Christoph Ritter, Ines Tritscher, and Bärbel Vogel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7535–7557, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7535-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7535-2024, 2024
Short summary
Radiative impact of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai stratospheric volcanic plume: role of aerosols and water vapor in the southern tropical Indian Ocean
Michael Sicard, Alexandre Baron, Marion Ranaivombola, Dominique Gantois, Tristan Millet, Pasquale Sellitto, Nelson Bègue, Hassan Bencherif, Guillaume Payen, Nicolas Marquestaut, and Valentin Duflot
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.170231679.99186200/v1,https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.170231679.99186200/v1, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Adachi, K., Sedlacek, A. J., Kleinman, L., Springston, S. R., Wang, J., Chand, D., Hubbe, J. M., Shilling, J. E., Onasch, T. B., Kinase, T., Sakata, K., Takahashi, Y., and Buseck, P. R.: Spherical tarball particles form through rapid chemical and physical changes of organic matter in biomass-burning smoke, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 116, 19336–19341, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1900129116, 2019. a
AERONET: Aerosol Robotic Network aerosol data base, AERONET [data set], http://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/, last access: 3 June 2021. a, b, c
Allen, D. R., Fromm, M. D., Kablick III, G. P.​​​​​​​, and Nedoluha, G. E.: Smoke with Induced Rotation and Lofting (SWIRL) in the stratosphere, J. Atmos. Sci., 77, 4297–4316, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-20-0131.1, 2020. a, b, c
Ansmann, A., Wagner, F., Wandinger, U., Mattis, I., Görsdorf, U., Dier, H.-D., and Reichardt, J.: Pinatubo aerosol and stratospheric ozone reduction: Observations over central Europe, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 101, 18775–18785, https://doi.org/10.1029/96JD01373, 1996. a
Ansmann, A., Mattis, I., Wandinger, U., Wagner, F., Reichardt, J., and Deshler, T.: Evolution of the Pinatubo aerosol: Raman lidar observations of particle optical depth, effective radius, mass, and surface area over Central Europe at 53.4 N, J. Atmos. Sci., 54, 2630–2641, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1997)054<2630:EOTPAR>2.0.CO;2, 1997. a, b
Download
Executive editor
Wildfires have attracted increasing attention in recent years because of their effects on local air quality, as well as on regional and global climate. Ohneiser et al. documents with impressive accuracy the appearance of wildfire plumes in the stratosphere over Australia in 2020/2021, showing strong influence on stratospheric ozone. We recommend readers to read this paper together with Solomon et al. ("On the stratospheric chemistry of midlatitude wildfire smoke", PNAS 2022,https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2117325119). Both studies highlight the importance of wildfires for stratospheric chemistry and the recovery of the ozone layer in a warming climate.
Short summary
We present and discuss 2 years of long-term lidar observations of the largest stratospheric perturbation by wildfire smoke ever observed. The smoke originated from the record-breaking Australian fires in 2019–2020 and affects climate conditions and even the ozone layer in the Southern Hemisphere. The obvious link between dense smoke occurrence in the stratosphere and strong ozone depletion found in the Arctic and in the Antarctic in 2020 can be regarded as a new aspect of climate change.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint