Smoke particles from wildfires can erode ozone layer

Subject: Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context: The researchers identified a new chemical reaction by which smoke particles from the Australian wildfires made ozone depletion worse.

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The smoke from recent wildfires is threatening to slow and even reverse the recovery of Earth’s ozone layer, according to a study.
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 researchers’ model also indicates the fires had an effect in the Polar Regions, eating away at the edges of the ozone hole over Antarctica.

Ozone:

Ozone is a gas made up of three oxygen atoms (O3). It occurs naturally in small (trace) amounts in the upper atmosphere (the stratosphere).
Ozone protects life on Earth from the Sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
In the lower atmosphere (the troposphere) near the Earth’s surface, ozone is created by chemical reactions between air pollutants from vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapors, and other emissions. At ground level, high concentrations of ozone are toxic to people and plants.
Ninety percent of the ozone in the atmosphere sits in the stratosphere, the layer of atmosphere between about 10 and 50 kilometers altitude
The natural level of ozone in the stratosphere is a result of a balance between sunlight that creates ozone and chemical reactions that destroy it.
Ozone is destroyed when it reacts with molecules containing nitrogen, hydrogen, chlorine, or bromine.
Increased levels of human-produced gases such as CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) have led to increased rates of ozone destruction, upsetting the natural balance of ozone and leading to reduced stratospheric ozone levels. These reduced ozone levels have increased the amount of harmful ultraviolet radiation reaching the Earth’s surface.