Transport and evolution of the 2009 Australian Black Saturday bushfire smoke in the lower stratosphere observed by OSIRIS on Odin

Abstract

[1] We report the transport and evolution of the Victorian Black Saturday bushfire smoke plume in the lower stratosphere during the February–June 2009 period. Vertical profiles of limb-scattered spectral solar radiation measured by the Optical Spectrograph and Infrared Imager System (OSIRIS) instrument on the Odin satellite are used for this purpose. According to OSIRIS measurements, the main smoke material penetrated above the tropopause on 11 February 2009. It traveled westward and circled the globe in about 6 weeks from its first detection in the lower stratosphere, remaining in the tropical channel between 5°S and 25°S. The main plume gradually advected from ∼19 km in mid-February to ∼22 km in April, with a vertical extent varying from 2 to 6 km. The background radiances at corresponding altitudes and latitudes were subtracted from the plume-containing radiances to obtain net plume peak radiances. The latter parameter, governed by the number, size, and chemical composition of smoke particles, decreased by half every 19 days from 11 February until the end of April 2009. Pollution of the lower stratosphere at 18–22 km altitudes and 5°S–25°S latitudes, caused by the smoke plume dispersion, was up to 35% above the background. By mid-June 2009, OSIRIS radiances at these altitudes and latitudes had almost returned to their background levels.