Peidong Wang

All Publications

• Fingerprinting the recovery of Antarctic ozone NATURE Wang, P., Solomon, S., Santer, B. D., Kinnison, D. E., Fu, Q., Stone, K. A., Zhang, J., Manney, G. L., Millan, L. F. 2025; 639 (8055): 646-651

  Abstract

  The Antarctic ozone 'hole' was discovered in 1985 (ref. 1) and man-made ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) are its primary cause2. Following reductions of ODSs under the Montreal Protocol3, signs of ozone recovery have been reported, based largely on observations and broad yet compelling model-data comparisons4. Although such approaches are highly valuable, they do not provide rigorous statistical detection of the temporal and spatial structure of Antarctic ozone recovery in the presence of internal climate variability. Here we apply pattern-based detection and attribution methods as used in climate-change studies5-11 to separate anthropogenically forced ozone responses from internal variability, relying on trend pattern information as a function of month and height. The analysis uses satellite observations together with single-model and multi-model ensemble simulations to identify and quantify the month-height Antarctic ozone recovery 'fingerprint'12. We demonstrate that the data and simulations show compelling agreement in the fingerprint pattern of the ozone response to decreasing ODSs since 2005. We also show that ODS forcing has enhanced ozone internal variability during the austral spring, influencing detection of forced responses and their time of emergence. Our results provide robust statistical and physical evidence that actions taken under the Montreal Protocol to reduce ODSs are indeed resulting in the beginning of Antarctic ozone recovery, defined as increases in ozone consistent with expected month-height patterns.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41586-025-08640-9

  View details for Web of Science ID 001437449800001

  View details for PubMedID 40044857

  View details for PubMedCentralID 10193933

• Contrasting Chlorine Chemistry on Volcanic and Wildfire Aerosols in the Southern Mid-Latitude Lower Stratosphere GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS Wang, P., Solomon, S. 2024; 51 (18)

  View details for DOI 10.1029/2024GL110412

  View details for Web of Science ID 001309564200001

• On the Influence of Hydroxyl Radical Changes and Ocean Sinks on Estimated HCFC and HFC Emissions and Banks GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS Wang, P., Solomon, S., Lickley, M., Scott, J. R., Weiss, R. F., Prinn, R. G. 2023; 50 (18)

  View details for DOI 10.1029/2023GL105472

  View details for Web of Science ID 001070406900001

• Stratospheric chlorine processing after the 2020 Australian wildfires derived from satellite data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Wang, P., Solomon, S., Stone, K. 2023; 120 (11): e2213910120

  Abstract

  The 2019 to 2020 Australian summer wildfires injected an amount of organic gases and particles into the stratosphere unprecedented in the satellite record since 2002, causing large unexpected changes in HCl and ClONO2. These fires provided a novel opportunity to evaluate heterogeneous reactions on organic aerosols in the context of stratospheric chlorine and ozone depletion chemistry. It has long been known that heterogeneous chlorine (Cl) activation occurs on the polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs; liquid and solid particles containing water, sulfuric acid, and in some cases nitric acid) that are found in the stratosphere, but these are only effective for ozone depletion chemistry at temperatures below about 195 K (i.e., largely in the polar regions during winter). Here, we develop an approach to quantitatively assess atmospheric evidence for these reactions using satellite data for both the polar (65 to 90°S) and the midlatitude (40 to 55°S) regions. We show that heterogeneous reactions apparently even happened at temperatures at 220 K during austral autumn on the organic aerosols present in 2020 in both regions, in contrast to earlier years. Further, increased variability in HCl was also found after the wildfires, suggesting diverse chemical properties among the 2020 aerosols. We also confirm the expectation based upon laboratory studies that heterogeneous Cl activation has a strong dependence upon water vapor partial pressure and hence atmospheric altitude, becoming much faster close to the tropopause. Our analysis improves the understanding of heterogeneous reactions that are important for stratospheric ozone chemistry under both background and wildfire conditions.

  View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.2213910120

  View details for PubMedID 36877843

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10089170

• Non-Local Parameterization of Atmospheric Subgrid Processes With Neural Networks JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN MODELING EARTH SYSTEMS Wang, P., Yuval, J., O'Gorman, P. A. 2022; 14 (10)

  View details for DOI 10.1029/2022MS002984

  View details for Web of Science ID 000871506300001

• On the effects of the ocean on atmospheric CFC-11 lifetimes and emissions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Wang, P., Scott, J. R., Solomon, S., Marshall, J., Babbin, A. R., Lickley, M., Thompson, D. W., DeVries, T., Liang, Q., Prinn, R. G. 2021; 118 (12)

  Abstract

  The ocean is a reservoir for CFC-11, a major ozone-depleting chemical. Anthropogenic production of CFC-11 dramatically decreased in the 1990s under the Montreal Protocol, which stipulated a global phase out of production by 2010. However, studies raise questions about current overall emission levels and indicate unexpected increases of CFC-11 emissions of about 10 Gg ⋅ yr-1 after 2013 (based upon measured atmospheric concentrations and an assumed atmospheric lifetime). These findings heighten the need to understand processes that could affect the CFC-11 lifetime, including ocean fluxes. We evaluate how ocean uptake and release through 2300 affects CFC-11 lifetimes, emission estimates, and the long-term return of CFC-11 from the ocean reservoir. We show that ocean uptake yields a shorter total lifetime and larger inferred emission of atmospheric CFC-11 from 1930 to 2075 compared to estimates using only atmospheric processes. Ocean flux changes over time result in small but not completely negligible effects on the calculated unexpected emissions change (decreasing it by 0.4 ± 0.3 Gg ⋅ yr-1). Moreover, it is expected that the ocean will eventually become a source of CFC-11, increasing its total lifetime thereafter. Ocean outgassing should produce detectable increases in global atmospheric CFC-11 abundances by the mid-2100s, with emission of around 0.5 Gg ⋅ yr-1; this should not be confused with illicit production at that time. An illustrative model projection suggests that climate change is expected to make the ocean a weaker reservoir for CFC-11, advancing the detectable change in the global atmospheric mixing ratio by about 5 yr.

  View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.2021528118

  View details for PubMedID 33723065

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC8000270

• Stratospheric Chlorine Processing After the Unprecedented Hunga Tonga Eruption GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS Zhang, J., Wang, P., Kinnison, D., Solomon, S., Guan, J., Stone, K., Zhu, Y. 2024; 51 (17)

  View details for DOI 10.1029/2024GL108649

  View details for Web of Science ID 001303011100001

• Physical Insights From the Multidecadal Prediction of North Atlantic Sea Surface Temperature Variability Using Explainable Neural Networks GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS Liu, G., Wang, P., Kwon, Y. 2023; 50 (24)

  View details for DOI 10.1029/2023GL106278

  View details for Web of Science ID 001127065900001

• Chlorine activation and enhanced ozone depletion induced by wildfire aerosol. Nature Solomon, S., Stone, K., Yu, P., Murphy, D. M., Kinnison, D., Ravishankara, A. R., Wang, P. 2023; 615 (7951): 259-264

  Abstract

  Remarkable perturbations in the stratospheric abundances of chlorine species and ozone were observed over Southern Hemisphere mid-latitudes following the 2020 Australian wildfires1,2. These changes in atmospheric chemical composition suggest that wildfire aerosols affect stratospheric chlorine and ozone depletion chemistry. Here we propose that wildfire aerosol containing a mixture of oxidized organics and sulfate3-7 increases hydrochloric acid solubility8-11 and associated heterogeneous reaction rates, activating reactive chlorine species and enhancing ozone loss rates at relatively warm stratospheric temperatures. We test our hypothesis by comparing atmospheric observations to model simulations that include the proposed mechanism. Modelled changes in 2020 hydrochloric acid, chlorine nitrate and hypochlorous acid abundances are in good agreement with observations1,2. Our results indicate that wildfire aerosol chemistry, although not accounting for the record duration of the 2020 Antarctic ozone hole, does yield an increase in its area and a 3-5% depletion of southern mid-latitude total column ozone. These findings increase concern2,12,13 that more frequent and intense wildfires could delay ozone recovery in a warming world.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41586-022-05683-0

  View details for PubMedID 36890371

  View details for PubMedCentralID 8915979

• Ambient Formaldehyde over the United States from Ground-Based (AQS) and Satellite (OMI) Observations REMOTE SENSING Wang, P., Holloway, T., Bindl, M., Harkey, M., De Smedt, I. 2022; 14 (9)

  View details for DOI 10.3390/rs14092191

  View details for Web of Science ID 000795312200001

• Quantifying the Imprints of Stratospheric Contributions to Interhemispheric Differences in Tropospheric CFC-11, CFC-12, and N₂O Abundances GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS Lickley, M., Solomon, S., Kinnison, D., Krummel, P., Muhle, J., O'Doherty, S., Prinn, R., Rigby, M., Stone, K. A., Wang, P., Weiss, R., Young, D. 2021; 48 (15)

  View details for DOI 10.1029/2021GL093700

  View details for Web of Science ID 000683512200073