Trends in stratospheric contraction under sulfate aerosol injection

The change in the size and density of Earth’s atmospheric layers is a noticeable impact of human activity on climate. It is well known that the troposphere has been widening over the last decades, and a contraction of the stratosphere has been recently quantified. At stratospheric levels, the injection of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere warms the stratospheric sulphur layer. One of its known side effects is a general decrease in ozone concentrations. However, the magnitude of global ozone depletion decreases with time, and results show that there is even an increase in the stratospheric ozone concentration after sulfate aerosol injection (SAI) has ceased.

Here we present some preliminary results from the Geoengineering Large Ensemble Project (GLENS) regarding stratospheric contraction that show that SAI enhances the stratopause descent caused by climate change. In contrast, for the tropopause height, SAI reverses the rising observed with climate change, in values similar to the existing rising but of the opposite sign.