Fires in Africa causing high ozone layers in Guam : Study

A new study has found that fires burning in Africa and Asia are the main cause for the high levels of ozone in the tropical Pacific region.

University of Maryland researchers have shown that fires burning in tropical Africa and South East Asia caused pockets of high ozone and low water in the lower atmosphere above Guam,a remote island in the Pacific Ocean 1,700 miles east of Taiwan.

Lead author Daniel Anderson has expressed his astonishment to find high concentrations of ozone and chemicals that they know are only emitted by fires in the air around Guam.

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Researchers have found that the polluted air that reached Guam never entered the stratosphere and instead simply dried out during its descent within the lower atmosphere.

UMD Professor Ross Salawitch said based on the results of this study, global climate models might need to be reassessed to include and correctly represent the impacts of biomass burning, deforestation and reforestation.

The study is published in the Journal Nature Communications.