News Climate

How wildfires deplete the Earth’s ozone layer

Scientists detail the chain of chemical reactions that occur when smoke enters the stratosphere

a huge column of smoke reaching into the stratosphere over Australia

In Australia’s summer of 2019 to 2020, wildfires produced towering columns of smoke (shown) that ascended into the stratosphere and reacted with Earth’s ozone layer.

DLMcK/E+/Getty images

By Carolyn Gramling

Towering clouds of smoke sent into the stratosphere by ferocious wildfires can eat away at Earth’s ozone layer thanks to a potent mix of smoke, atmospheric chemistry and ultraviolet light, a new study finds.