Atmospheric researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada warns that if wildfires become more frequent, higher levels of UV radiation will hit the ground. In studying the data provided by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment of the Canadian Space Agency, atmospheric chemists found out that the smoke produced by the 2019-2020 Australian wildfires had caused the destruction of the atmospheric ozone that has been shielding the Southern Hemisphere for months.
As it is, the ozone occurring as a stratosphere layer absorbs UV rays radiated by the sun.
University of Waterloo Professor Explains How Wildfire Smoke Cause Ozone Destruction
Research professor Peter Bernath of Waterloo University’s Department of Chemistry, and also the author of the study, explained that as Australian wildfires raged on, the acidic smoke injected particles that disrupted the blanket of hydrogen, chlorine and nitrogen regulating the ozone layer.
Professor Bernath said that it is the first large amount of smoke measured by thevAtmospheric Chemistry Experiment or the ACE. The ACE satellite measures large collection of molecules, as a way to provide a more complete imaging of what is happening to the Earth’s atmosphere.
