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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Puzzling spikes in ozone-eating chemical have a fiery cause

Scientists trace variation in methyl bromide levels to an increase in fires — which are linked to the climate pattern El Niño.
The Amazon rainforest was burned in the Acre state of Brazil on the 17th November, 2014.

Flames charred the Brazilian rainforest in late 2014, during the onset of a climatic pattern called El Niño that is linked to high fire activity. Fires release the ozone-depleting gas methyl bromide. Credit: Ricardo Funari/Brazil Photos/LightRocket via Getty

The influence of the tropical Pacific Ocean extends all the way into the stratosphere: the ocean’s waters affect the weather and thus the behaviour of fires in far-flung locales; these, in turn, drive emissions of a powerful ozone-depleting gas1.

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Nature 602, 364 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00356-4

References

  1. Nicewonger, M. R., Saltzman, E. S. & Montzka, S. A. Geophys. Res. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL094756 (2022).

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