Fate of pollution emitted during the 2015 Indonesian fire season

In this study, measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) from the Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) on Terra and the Microwave Limb Sounder are used to characterize the anomalously high CO emitted during the 2015 Indonesian fire season transported into the tropical upper troposphere and stratosphere.

The satellite measurements indicate that CO emitted from wildfires was transported into the upper troposphere with time lags up to ∼2 months and continued to be transported into the stratosphere, which resulted in higher concentrations of CO extending up to ∼20 hPa by the end of 2016. Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) measured by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) confirms that anomalously high HCN emitted from the same wildfires was also transported into the tropical stratosphere and persisted throughout 2017.