The authors of the new work state that their discovery has implications not only for air quality but also for the climate – iodine chemistry can make greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere longer.
Our understanding of the iodine cycle is incomplete. There are terrestrial sources and processes which we did not know about but which we now need to explore.
Rainer Volkamer, head of the research team
Researchers had previously noticed that dusty layers of air have low ozone content. The reason was thought to be a process occurring on the surface of the dust particles that causes ozone to be absorbed. But laboratory experiments have not confirmed this.
The authors of the new study combined the results of previous studies and found that at sites where the desert dust contained significant levels of iodine, this substance was rapidly transformed into a gaseous form, while ozone fell to a very low level. This is found in the Atacama and Sechura deserts in Chile and Peru.
As the researchers noted, this is a very valuable discovery, because while at low levels ozone harms people, in the higher layers of the atmosphere it forms the very ozone layer, which protects us from solar radiation.
Now that the effects of iodine on ozone are understood, it is important “not to add to the stratosphere”, Volkamer stressed.
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