Strong impact of wildfires on the abundance and aging of black carbon in the lowermost stratosphere
Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Wildfires inject large amounts of black carbon (BC) particles into the atmosphere, which can reach the lowermost stratosphere (LMS) and cause strong radiative forcing. During a 14-month period of observations on board a passenger aircraft flying between Europe and North America, we found frequent and widespread biomass burning (BB) plumes, influencing 16 of 160 flight hours in the LMS. The average BC mass concentrations in these plumes (∼140 ng·m −3 , standard temperature and pressure) were over 20 times higher than the background concentration (∼6 ng·m −3 ) with more than 100-fold enhanced peak values (up to ∼720 ng·m −3 ). In the LMS, nearly all BC particles were covered with a thick coating. The average mass equivalent diameter of the BC particle cores was ∼120 nm with a mean coating thickness of ∼150 nm in the BB plume and ∼90 nm with a coating of ∼125 nm in the background. In a BB plume that was encountered twice, we also found a high diameter growth rate of ∼1 nm·h −1 due to the BC particle coatings. The observed high concentrations and thick coatings of BC particles demonstrate that wildfires can induce strong local heating in the LMS and may have a significant influence on the regional radiative forcing of climate.
Authors: Jeannine Ditas, Nan Ma, Yuxuan Zhang, Denise Assmann, Marco Neumaier, Hella Riede, Einar Karu, Jonathan Williams, Dieter Scharffe, Qiaoqiao Wang, Jorge Saturno, Joshua P. Schwarz, Joseph M. Katich, Gavin R. McMeeking, Andreas Zahn, Markus Hermann, Carl A. M. Brenninkmeijer, Meinrat O. Andreae, Ulrich Pöschl, Hang Su, Yafang Cheng
Institutions: Jinan University, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Handix Scientific (United States), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, King Saud University, University of California San Diego
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: hybrid
Funders: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Jinan University, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center, National Key Research and Development Program of China
Awards: G2557952690, G6906290767
OpenAlex ID: W2902829285