Material coherence and life cycle of a wildfire-generated stratospheric vortex
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arXiv
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| Auteurs principaux: | , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Publié: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866911621866061824 |
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| author | Andrade-Canto, F. Beron-Vera, F. J. |
| author_facet | Andrade-Canto, F. Beron-Vera, F. J. |
| contents | Pyro-cumulonimbus convection associated with extreme wildfires can generate long-lived vortical structures in the stratosphere. These structures have been described as coherent, yet a rigorous material characterization has remained lacking. Here we provide such a characterization by applying geodesic vortex detection to reanalysis winds during the 2019--2020 Australian bushfires.
We identify a coherent Lagrangian vortex, dubbed \emph{Koobor}, whose boundary is given by materially coherent loops exhibiting nearly uniform stretching and strong resistance to filamentation over finite time intervals of up to 40~days. The detected vortex extends across multiple isentropic levels, revealing a vertically organized evolution with delayed onset and reduced persistence at higher levels.
Taken together across isentropic levels, the reconstructed life cycle indicates that \emph{Koobor} maintained quasi-material coherence for nearly 60~days from its first detection, through a sequence of overlapping materially coherent boundaries rather than a single boundary advected over the entire period.
Our results establish a material framework for wildfire-induced stratospheric vortices and provide a dynamically consistent description of their life cycle, from formation to decay. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_22926 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Material coherence and life cycle of a wildfire-generated stratospheric vortex Andrade-Canto, F. Beron-Vera, F. J. Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics Chaotic Dynamics Fluid Dynamics Pyro-cumulonimbus convection associated with extreme wildfires can generate long-lived vortical structures in the stratosphere. These structures have been described as coherent, yet a rigorous material characterization has remained lacking. Here we provide such a characterization by applying geodesic vortex detection to reanalysis winds during the 2019--2020 Australian bushfires. We identify a coherent Lagrangian vortex, dubbed \emph{Koobor}, whose boundary is given by materially coherent loops exhibiting nearly uniform stretching and strong resistance to filamentation over finite time intervals of up to 40~days. The detected vortex extends across multiple isentropic levels, revealing a vertically organized evolution with delayed onset and reduced persistence at higher levels. Taken together across isentropic levels, the reconstructed life cycle indicates that \emph{Koobor} maintained quasi-material coherence for nearly 60~days from its first detection, through a sequence of overlapping materially coherent boundaries rather than a single boundary advected over the entire period. Our results establish a material framework for wildfire-induced stratospheric vortices and provide a dynamically consistent description of their life cycle, from formation to decay. |
| title | Material coherence and life cycle of a wildfire-generated stratospheric vortex |
| topic | Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics Chaotic Dynamics Fluid Dynamics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.22926 |