Aircraft observations of biomass burning pollutants in the equatorial lower stratosphere over the tropical western Pacific during boreal winter

Pittman, Jasna V.; Daube, Bruce C.; Wofsy, Steven C.; Atlas, Elliot L.; Navarro, Maria A.; Hintsa, Eric J.; Moore, Fred L.; Dutton, Geoff S.; Elkins, James W.; Thornberry, Troy D.; Rollins, Andrew W.; Jensen, Eric J.; Bui, Thaopaul; Dean-Day, Jonathan; Pfister, Leonhard

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7543-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 14

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7543-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7543-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 14

Research article

|

18 Jul 2025

Research article |

| 18 Jul 2025

Aircraft observations of biomass burning pollutants in the equatorial lower stratosphere over the tropical western Pacific during boreal winter

Jasna V. Pittman, Bruce C. Daube, Steven C. Wofsy, Elliot L. Atlas, Maria A. Navarro, Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, Geoff S. Dutton, James W. Elkins, Troy D. Thornberry, Andrew W. Rollins, Eric J. Jensen, Thaopaul Bui, Jonathan Dean-Day, and Leonhard Pfister

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7543-2025-supplement

Data sets

ATTREX Global Hawk UAS In-Situ Trace Gas Measurements NASA https://doi.org/10.5067/ASDC_DAAC/ATTREX/0003

ATTREX Global Hawk UAS Meteorological and Navigational Measurements NASA https://doi.org/10.5067/AIRCRAFT/ATTREX/CLOUD-H2O-TRACER-RADIATION

MLS/Aura Near-Real-Time L2 Carbon Monoxide (CO) Mixing Ratio V005 EOS MLS Science Team https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datacollection/ML2CO_NRT_005.html

The ERA-Interim reanalysis dataset European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecast https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/dataset/ecmwf-reanalysis-interim

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Short summary

Biomass fires emit aerosols and precursors that can provide a novel environment for initiating stratospheric ozone loss. The Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment campaign sampled the western Pacific, the dominant longitudes for surface air lofted by convection to enter the global stratosphere. Aircraft measurements over multiple flights revealed persistent layers of biomass burning pollutants entering the lower stratosphere and originating from fires as far away as Africa and Indonesia.