Bromine is an effective ozone destruction catalyst in the stratosphere, the region of the atmosphere that contains the ozone layer. Most bromine reaching the stratosphere comes from anthropogenic sources, which are controlled by the Montreal Protocol (an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer of the Earth). In addition, an uncertain amount of natural organic bromine compounds, emitted from the oceans as a result of the marine biological activity, can reach the stratosphere where it contributes to the destruction of the ozone layer. In this work, these ocean-emitted organic bromine compounds have been measured for the first time both over the East and West Pacific Ocean in profiles from the ocean surface up to the gateway of the stratosphere, at 18 km. The measurements were made aboard the NASA´s non-tripulated Global Hawk aircraft as part of the NASA´s Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (ATTREX) campaigns. This study also uses a climate model to quantify the impact of the injected natural bromine on the destruction of the ozone layer. 

Maria A. Navarro, Elliot L. Atlas, Alfonso Saiz-Lopez, Xavier Rodriguez-Lloveras, Douglas E. Kinnison, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Simone Tilmes, Michal Filus, Neil R. P. Harris, Elena Meneguz, Matthew J. Ashfold, Alistair J. Manning, Carlos A. Cuevas, Sue M. Schauffler, and Valeria Donets. Airborne measurements of organic bromine compounds in the Pacific tropical tropopause layer. PNAS.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1511463112