A new international study which included researchers from the University of Saskatchewan concludes that an expected increase in wildfires due to climate change, may lead to damaging the earth’s protective ozone layer, slowing its ability to recover.

USask Ph.D. student Kimberlee Dube (doo bay) explains that using satellite data over the last thirty years from a Canadian satellite instrument called OSIRIS, they can compare the numbers to what was happening during and after the wildfires in Australia a few years ago.  What they found is a loss of ozone layer at a rate of one per cent.

The ozone layer is expected to recover at one per cent per decade under the international environmental protection plan, so researchers expect there will be an impact if wildfires increase. Dube says Canadian satellite missions were integral to this project, which included scientists from USask, NASA, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology among others.