Australian wildfires cause the largest stratospheric warming since Pinatubo and extends the lifetime of the Antarctic ozone hole

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Damany-Pearce, Lilly, Johnson, Ben, Wells, Alice, Osborne, Martin, Allan, James, Belcher, Claire, Jones, Andy, Haywood, Jim
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic
• Online Access: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/publications/24b81f16-e170-4f79-827d-7c2f8691c3c7; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15794-3; http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85136731302&partnerID=8YFLogxK

Global mean lower stratosphere temperatures rose abruptly in January 2020 reaching values not experienced since the early 1990s. Anomalously high lower stratospheric temperatures were recorded for 4 months at highly statistically significant levels. Here, we use a combination of satellite and surface-based remote sensing observations to derive a time-series of stratospheric biomass burning aerosol optical depths originating from intense SouthEastern Australian wildfires and use these aerosol optical depths in a state-of-the-art climate model. We show that the S.E. Australian wildfires are the cause of this lower stratospheric warming. We also investigate the radiatively-driven dynamical response to the observed stratospheric ozone perturbation and find a significant strengthening of the springtime Antarctic polar vortex suggesting that biomass burning aerosols play a significant role in the observed anomalous longevity of the ozone hole in 2020.