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

This is the final version. Available from Nature Research via the DOI in this record. Data availability Observational and model data is available from the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis archive (CEDA) catalogue (https://archive.ceda.ac.uk/), project reference: NE/S00212X/1. MSU/AMSU data are...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific Reports
Main Authors: Damany-Pearce, L, Johnson, B, Wells, A, Osborne, M, Allan, J, Belcher, C, Jones, A, Haywood, J
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Nature Research 2022
Subjects:
Atmospheric science
Climate change
Climate sciences
Natural hazards
Antarc*
Antarctic
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10871/130620
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15794-3
Description
Summary:This is the final version. Available from Nature Research via the DOI in this record. Data availability Observational and model data is available from the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis archive (CEDA) catalogue (https://archive.ceda.ac.uk/), project reference: NE/S00212X/1. MSU/AMSU data are produced by Remote Sensing Systems and sponsored by NASA (data are available at www.remss.com). Assistance in analyzing the data is available by contacting the corresponding author. 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. Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Natural Environment Research Council Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme UKRI

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