SAGE III and INSPYRE Assess PyroCb‑Driven Stratospheric Smoke Injection from 2026 Wildfires

According to NASA Science, massive wildfires burning across Canada, the western United States, and western Europe are sending smoke thousands of miles across the continent—but a new mission is focused on something even more significant. INSPYRE, a new atmospheric monitoring experiment, is testing whether extreme fires are capable of injecting smoke directly into the stratosphere, where it can alter Earth's radiative balance and potentially affect global climate. NASA's SAGE III satellite is providing baseline measurements to support the research. A key precedent: extreme fires in the Pacific Northwest back in two thousand seventeen caused a record-setting spike in stratospheric smoke injection. As wildfires grow more intense, researchers want to understand whether that pattern is accelerating.

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