News Earth

Smoke from Australian fires rose higher into the ozone layer than ever before

As one plume rose to record heights, it wrapped itself in unusual winds

pyrocumulonimbus cloud

During Australia's most recent bushfire season, enormous wildfire-driven clouds called pyrocumulonimbus, or pyroCb, clouds (one pictured) injected unprecedented amounts of smoke into the stratosphere. One particularly long-lasting smoke plume rose to a record-high altitude.

Eigenes Werk/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

By Maria Temming

- More than 2 years ago

Read another version of this article at Science News Explores

Australia’s most recent wildfire season was so severe that smoke from the fires reached new heights in the atmosphere — and showed some very weird behavior while it was up there.