Wildfire-driven Thunderstorms Cause a Volcano-Like Stratospheric Injection of Smoke

Intense heating by wildfires can generate deep, smoke-infused thunderstorms, known as pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb), which can release a large quantity of smoke particles above jet aircraft cruising altitudes. Injections of pyroCb smoke into the lower stratosphere have gained increasing attention over t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NPJ climate and atmospheric science 2018-01, Vol.1 (1), Article 30
Main Authors: Peterson, David A., Campbell, James R., Hyer, Edward J., Fromm, Michael D., III, George P. Kablick, Cossuth, Joshua H., Deland, Matthew T., Colarco, Peter R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/106
704/106/35
704/106/35/824
704/106/694
Aerosols
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Atmospheric Sciences
Benchmarks
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Climate system
Climatology
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Extreme values
Geophysics
Heat exchange
Injection
Jet aircraft
Northern Hemisphere
Ozone
Particulates
Remote sensing
Satellite observation
Satellites
Smoke
Stratosphere
Thunderstorms
Troposphere
Upper atmosphere
Volcanic activity
Volcanic eruptions
Volcanoes
Weather
Wildfires
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Summary:Intense heating by wildfires can generate deep, smoke-infused thunderstorms, known as pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb), which can release a large quantity of smoke particles above jet aircraft cruising altitudes. Injections of pyroCb smoke into the lower stratosphere have gained increasing attention over the past 15 years due to the rapid proliferation of satellite remote sensing tools. Impacts from volcanic eruptions and other troposphere-to-stratosphere exchange processes on stratospheric radiative and chemical equilibrium are well recognized and monitored. However, the role of pyroCb smoke in the climate system has yet to be acknowledged. Here, we show that the mass of smoke aerosol particles injected into the lower stratosphere from five near-simultaneous intense pyroCbs occurring in western North America on 12 August 2017 was comparable to that of a moderate volcanic eruption, and an order of magnitude larger than previous benchmarks for extreme pyroCb activity. The resulting stratospheric plume encircled the Northern Hemisphere over several months. By characterizing this event, we conclude that pyroCb activity, considered as either large singular events, or a full fire season inventory, significantly perturb the lower stratosphere in a manner comparable with infrequent volcanic intrusions.
ISSN:2397-3722
2397-3722
DOI:10.1038/s41612-018-0039-3