Radiative forcing and stratospheric ozone changes due to major forest fires and recent volcanic eruptions including Hunga Tonga

Abstract. Recent studies suggest that emissions from large forest fires affect stratospheric chemistry, dynamics, and climate, similar to major volcanic eruptions. Using the chemistry-climate model EMAC, we demonstrate that organic carbon emitted from forest fires, injected into the stratosphere through pyro-cumulonimbi, enhances heterogeneous chlorine activation related to high solubility of HCl in particles containing organic acids and an augmented aerosol surface area, in agreement with existing literature. Following the 2019/2020 Australian megafires, the upward transport of the pollution plumes resulted in enhanced ozone depletion in the Southern Hemisphere lower stratosphere, as corroborated by satellite observations. It diminished column ozone in the following two years, accompanied by a dynamically induced reduction in 2020 due to the lofting of smoke-filled vortices, in total by up to 45 DU. The eruption of the submarine Hunga Tonga volcano in January 2022 caused a decline in total ozone across the entire Southern Hemisphere. The water vapour injection from the volcano altered only the vertical distribution of ozone loss. The sunlight-absorbing aerosol from the Australian and, to a smaller extent, the Canadian forest fire emissions in 2019/2020 induced the most significant perturbation in stratospheric optical depth since the major eruption of Pinatubo in 1991. It shifted the sign of instantaneous stratospheric aerosol forcing, derived at the top of the atmosphere, from −0.2 to +0.3 W m−2 in January 2020. The global aerosol radiative forcing resulting from the Hunga Tonga eruption was −0.16 W m−2, primarily driven by changes in stratospheric sulfate aerosols. The positive radiative forcing from the injected water vapour was minimal.