Understanding the chemistry and life cycle of stratospheric aerosol is important for predicting the effects of perturbations. Large volcanoes regularly perturb the stratospheric aerosol by adding significant aerosol mass, leading to temporary climate cooling until the particles sediment out. In recent years, the idea of intentional stratospheric aerosol addition to cool the climate has gained significant interest. In addition, recent results from our group show that exotic metals from spacecraft reentry events can be found in a significant fraction of stratospheric particles. The effects of these actual and hypothetical anthropogenic perturbations to stratospheric aerosol have considerable uncertainty. This poster will focus on the composition and fate of aerosol particles originating in the winter polar vortex over the Northern Hemisphere, based on in situ measurements from the NASA WB-57 platform using the NOAA PALMS-NG single particle mass spectrometer. Almost all particles sampled in polar vortex air at ~ 17-19 km altitude were sulfuric acid containing a few percent by mass meteoric metals, and sometimes spacecraft metals. These particles, formed in old, descending air, have extremely low organic mass content and are smaller in diameter than typical stratospheric particles. Via coagulation with background stratospheric sulfuric acid aerosol, they distribute meteoric and spacecraft metals across the stratospheric aerosol.