Black carbon lofts wildfire smoke high into the stratosphere to form a persistent plume

作者：Pengfei Yu, O. B. Toon, Charles Bardeen, Yunqian Zhu, Karen H. Rosenlof, R. W. Portmann, Troy Thornberry, R. S. Gao, Sean Davis, Eric Wolf, J. A. de Gouw, David A. Peterson, Michael Fromm, Alan Robock · 发表于：Science · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.1126/science.aax1748 · 被引用次数：404 · 研究领域：Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols、Atmospheric aerosols and clouds、Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics

In 2017, western Canadian wildfires injected smoke into the stratosphere that was detectable by satellites for more than 8 months. The smoke plume rose from 12 to 23 kilometers within 2 months owing to solar heating of black carbon, extending the lifetime and latitudinal spread. Comparisons of model simulations to the rate of observed lofting indicate that 2% of the smoke mass was black carbon. The observed smoke lifetime in the stratosphere was 40% shorter than calculated with a standard model that does not consider photochemical loss of organic carbon. Photochemistry is represented by using an empirical ozone-organics reaction probability that matches the observed smoke decay. The observed rapid plume rise, latitudinal spread, and photochemical reactions provide new insights into potential global climate impacts from nuclear war.