Smoke particles from wildfires can erode ozone layer: MIT study
The Hindu
The researchers identified a new chemical reaction by which smoke particles from the Australian wildfires made ozone depletion worse
The smoke from recent wildfires is threatening to slow and even reverse the recovery of Earth's ozone layer, according to a study.
Ozone layer is the protective cover shielding the Earth from the Sun's damaging ultraviolet radiation.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US noted that a wildfire can pump smoke up into the stratosphere, where the particles drift for over a year.
While suspended there, these particles can trigger chemical reactions that erode the ozone layer.
The study, published in the journal Nature, focused on the smoke from the “Black Summer” megafire in eastern Australia, which burned from December 2019 into January 2020.
The fires -- the country's most devastating on record -- scorched tens of millions of acres and pumped more than one million tonnes of smoke into the atmosphere.
The researchers identified a new chemical reaction by which smoke particles from the Australian wildfires made ozone depletion worse.
