Washington, March 26 (ANI): In a new study, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, US, pollutants from the Asian region are being wafted up to the stratosphere during monsoon season.
Using satellite observations and computer models, the research team determined that vigorous summertime circulation patterns associated with the Asian monsoon rapidly transport air upward from the Earth's surface.
Those vertical movements provide a pathway for black carbon, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutants to ascend into the stratosphere, about 20-25 miles above the Earth's surface.
"The monsoon is one of the most powerful atmospheric circulation systems on the planet, and it happens to form right over a heavily polluted region," said NCAR scientist William Randel, the lead author of the study.
"As a result, the monsoon provides a pathway for transporting pollutants up to the stratosphere," he added.
Once in the stratosphere, the pollutants circulate around the globe for several years.
Some eventually descend back into the lower atmosphere, while others break apart.
The study suggests that the impact of Asian pollutants on the stratosphere may increase in coming decades because of the growing industrial activity in China and other rapidly developing nations.
In addition, climate change could alter the Asian monsoon.
Randel and his colleagues suspected that the monsoon might also transport air into the stratosphere during the Northern Hemisphere's summer months.
This could explain satellite measurements showing anomalous levels of stratospheric ozone, water vapor, and other chemicals over Asia during summer.
To isolate the role of the monsoon on the stratosphere, the researchers focused on a chemical, hydrogen cyanide, that is produced largely as a result of the burning of trees and other vegetation.
The parcels of air over the tropical ocean that are lifted to the stratosphere by the Brewer-Dobson circulation contain low amounts of hydrogen cyanide, which breaks up over the ocean.
But air over land that gets lifted up by the monsoon contains high levels of the chemical, especially during times of year when Asia has widespread fires, many set to clear land for agriculture.
When they examined satellite measurements, the researchers detected significant amounts of hydrogen cyanide throughout the lower atmosphere and up into the stratosphere over the monsoon region.
Furthermore, satellite records from 2004 to 2009 showed a pattern of increases in the chemical's presence in the stratosphere each summer, correlating with the timing of the monsoon.
The observations also showed hydrogen cyanide, which can last in the atmosphere for several years before breaking up, moving over the tropics with other pollutants and then circulating globally. (ANI)
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