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The influence of short-lived halogens on atmospheric chemistry and climate

Nature volume 648, pages 289–299 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Observations have demonstrated the ubiquity of short-lived halogens (SLHs)—defined as organic and inorganic chlorine, bromine and iodine compounds with an overall atmospheric lifetime of less than 6 months—in the global atmosphere. They are primarily emitted naturally from the ocean, cryosphere, volcanoes, salt lakes and the biosphere. However, unregulated anthropogenic sources are increasingly contributing to their atmospheric loading. Some of their natural emissions have increased over time due to anthropogenic pollution, for example, the increased oceanic emissions of iodine compounds due to the deposition of ozone on the sea surface. SLHs affect chemical processes, such as ozone and methane chemistry, and therefore influence air quality and climate. Nevertheless, some of their sources and chemistry are not included in air-quality and climate models used in international assessment reports. Here we describe in detail the various impacts of SLHs on air quality and climate, and make a case for the inclusion of more comprehensive SLH chemistry in future atmospheric, air-quality and climate assessments. In doing so, we also identify gaps in our knowledge of SLH emissions, chemistry, and environmental and climate impacts.

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Fig. 1: Direct and indirect influence of SLHs on atmospheric composition, radiation and climate.
Fig. 2: The geographical distribution of changes in various atmospheric constituents and the net change in global radiative effect due to SLHs.
Fig. 3: Increase in iodine concentrations in the recent past.
Fig. 4: The effect of chlorine addition on the surface temperature and atmospheric methane burden.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been funded by the European Research Council Executive Agency under Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme project ERC-2016-COG 726349 CLIMAHAL and grant PID2023-152856OB-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF/EU. The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology is funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. B.J.F.-P. acknowledges support from the US National Science Foundation (2030175, 2303948, 2327825). L.J.C. thanks the support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Program (grant agreement no. 833290). M.P.C. thanks NERC for funding through projects NE/V011863/X and NE/X003450/1. R.H. was supported by NERC (grant NE/V011863/1). T.W. thanks the support from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (T24-504/17-N and 15207421). K.A.P. acknowledges support from the US National Science Foundation (OPP-2000493). S.S. appreciates support from the NSF grant 2128617. R.P.F. thanks the financial support from MinCyT (REMATE IF-2023-85161983-APN) and CONICET. R.J.S. acknowledges the support of the NASA Atmospheric Composition Modelling and Analysis Program (grant 80NSSC19K098). We thank the staff at NorArte Visual Science for the design of Fig. 1. A.S.-L. would like to acknowledge the support of Silverlining and Spark Climate Solutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate, Institute of Physical Chemistry Blas Cabrera, CSIC, Madrid, Spain

    Alfonso Saiz-Lopez & Carlos A. Cuevas

  2. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India

    Anoop S. Mahajan

  3. University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Jonathan Abbatt

  4. Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologica—Osservatorio Etneo, Catania, Italy

    Nicole Bobrowski

  5. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Nicole Bobrowski & Ulrich Platt

  6. NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, CO, USA

    Steven S. Brown

  7. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    John P. Burrows

  8. Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories, Department of Chemistry, University of York, York, UK

    Lucy J. Carpenter

  9. University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Martyn P. Chipperfield & John M. C. Plane

  10. Institute for Interdisciplinary Science, CONICET, Mendoza, Argentina

    Rafael P. Fernandez

  11. Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Ryan Hossaini

  12. National Centre for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA

    Douglas E. Kinnison & Jean-Francois Lamarque

  13. SilverLining, Washington, DC, USA

    Jean-Francois Lamarque

  14. University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Barbara J. Finlayson-Pitts & Eric S. Saltzman

  15. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Kerri A. Pratt

  16. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    A. R. Ravishankara

  17. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Ross J. Salawitch

  18. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA

    William R. Simpson

  19. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Susan Solomon

  20. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Joel A. Thornton

  21. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

    Tao Wang

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  1. Alfonso Saiz-Lopez
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  2. Anoop S. Mahajan
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Contributions

A.S.-L. and A.S.M. initiated this study. A.S.-L., A.S.M., C.A.C., R.P.F., J.P.B., L.J.C., M.P.C., B.J.F.-P., J.M.C.P., A.R.R., R.J.S. and S.S. performed the data compilation and analysis. A.S.M., C.A.C. and R.P.F. produced the figures. All of the authors discussed and commented on the findings. A.S.-L. and A.S.M. wrote the manuscript with contributions from J.A., N.B., S.S.B., J.P.B., L.J.C., M.P.C., C.A.C., R.P.F., R.H., D.E.K., J.-F.L., B.J.F.-P., J.M.C.P., U.P., K.A.P., A.R.R, R.J.S., E.S.S., W.R.S., S.S., J.A.T. and T.W.

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Correspondence to Alfonso Saiz-Lopez.

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Saiz-Lopez, A., Mahajan, A.S., Abbatt, J. et al. The influence of short-lived halogens on atmospheric chemistry and climate. Nature 648, 289–299 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09753-x

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