3 August 2019 | New Scientist | 29Arctic on fire
Image Contains modified
Copernicus Sentinel data [2019]
Sentinel Hub/Pierre MarkuseHUGE wildfires are continuing
to burn across the Arctic, releasing
more carbon dioxide in 2019 than
in any year since satellite records
began nearly two decades ago.
The ones pictured here in
northern Russia show a burn scar
about 550 square kilometres in
size and enormous smoke plumes.
The fires’ hotspots – in yellow,
orange and red – were detected
using shortwave infrared sensors
on the EU’s Sentinel-2 satellite.
Temperatures have been
well above average in the region
and fires erupted in boreal
peatlands across Siberia early in
June. Normally the fires would
last a few days, but this year, some
have been ablaze for a month
and a half.
The result is the rapid release
of over 121 megatonnes of carbon
dioxide – more than Belgium’s
emissions in 2017 – eclipsing
the previous record of 110
megatonnes of CO2 for the
whole of 2004. The Arctic wildfire
season runs from July to August,
so the burning could continue
for several more weeks.
While the fires were initially
clustered around the north of the
Sakha Republic in Russia, more
fires have appeared elsewhere
in the country, along with Alaska
and Greenland. Ruth Mottram
at the Danish Meteorological
Institute says the whole of
Greenland has been experiencing
“something exceptional” in high
ground temperatures, which may
be a contributing factor to fires,
along with low rainfall.
“These Arctic fires are expected
to occur more severely and more
frequently in the future ,” says
Merritt Turetsky at the University
of Guelph, Canada. ❚Adam VaughanThe changing climate
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