Effects of stratospheric wildfire smoke on ozone depleting substances and ozone levels in the northern midlatitudes

Sammanfattning: The goal of this project was to examine whether there are correlations between recent wildfires in the northern hemisphere and stratospheric ozone anomalies in the midlatitudes following the creation of ozone depleting substances. To achieve this goal, data from the Aura satellite's Microwave Limb Sounder instrument was used and processed with self-written Python scripts. Firstly, in order to analyze the data appropriately and to set it into context, results of previously published papers regarding the 2019-20 Australian wildfire were verified with the data. As a result, perturbations in hydrogen chloride, chloromethane, and ozone following the fires were found. The underlying chemical mechanism can possibly be explained by the hydrogenation of smoke particles and subsequent reactions on their surfaces. As an example for the northern hemisphere, the 2017 wildfire in British Columbia was analyzed in accordance with these findings. The process resulted in no connections between the Canadian wildfire and ozone destruction produced by ozone depleting substances being found in the data. Therefore, in conclusion, there might be a certain threshold in injected smoke particle mass into the stratosphere. The injection of the Canadian wildfire was then potentially not enough in order to invoke sufficient production of ozone depleting substances compared to the initial production of ozone by smoke particles to deplete the midlatitude ozone layer measurably.