Doug Kinnison comments on wildfires harming the ozone layer

DENVER — Smoke from the Canadian wildfires is once again hazing up the Front Range.

Not only is it unpleasant to breathe, new research shows that smoke can erode the protective ozone layer.

Take for example a 2020 Australian brushfire that burned nearly 40 million acres and pumped massive amounts of smoke into the atmosphere.

"It injected on the order of about one million tons of soot and organics into the stratosphere," said Doug Kinnison, project scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. "The soot is being injected above the ozone layer."

Read more at 9News; May 24, 2023.