Articles | Volume 25, issue 24
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-18697-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-18697-2025
Research article
 | 
22 Dec 2025
Research article |  | 22 Dec 2025

Radiative forcing and stratospheric ozone changes due to major forest fires and recent volcanic eruptions including Hunga Tonga

Christoph Brühl, Matthias Kohl, and Jos Lelieveld

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Cited articles

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
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Bourassa, A. E., Zawada, D. J.and Rieger, L. A., Warnock, T. W., Toohey, M., and Degenstein, D. A.: Tomographic retrievals of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic aerosol, Geophys. Res. Lett., 50, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL101978, 2023. a, b
Brühl, C., Schallock, J., Klingmüller, K., Robert, C., Bingen, C., Clarisse, L., Heckel, A., North, P., and Rieger, L.: Stratospheric aerosol radiative forcing simulated by the chemistry climate model EMAC using Aerosol CCI satellite data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 12845–12857, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-12845-2018, 2018. a
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Short summary
Simulations with a comprehensive chemistry-climate model show that organic aerosol from recent major forest fires strongly enhances heterogeneous ozone depletion by chlorine in the middle and high latitude lower stratosphere, supported by satellite observations. This sunlight-absorbing, self-lofting aerosol perturbs the radiation budget and stratospheric dynamics differently from major volcanic eruptions, which are also included in this study.
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