Catastrophic Fires in the Russian Federation
Abstract
Impacts of climate change on the severity of wildfires and the implications for carbon emissions in the boreal zone are globally significant because Russia contains two-thirds of the world's boreal forest and peat lands. Wildfires in Russia burn from 2 to 20 million ha annually, depending on burning conditions, yet quantification of trends in fire patterns is hampered by the lack of accurate historic fire data. Official Russian wildfire records greatly underestimate burned areas. However, satellite data for Russia have become easily available for assessing area burned since 1980, and we are in the process of analyzing these data to map historic burned area and fire patterns. Catastrophic fire refers to large, uncontrollable fires that are associated with extreme weather conditions. In Russia, major catastrophic fire events are associated with stable anticyclonic systems, which lead to severe drought that supports extreme fire behavior. These forest fires result in large areas burned and high consumption of vegetation and organic soil horizons. Additionally, thick smoke can reduce visibility, which often paralyzes suppression efforts. In recent years, there have been several large and often economically devastating fire complexes across Russia (European Russia, Tyva, Sakha, Chita and the Far East). We present evidence of the association of these large fires with very high or extreme fire weather danger. We assert that these large fire systems have increased in severity in response to current changes in weather and climate, and we argue that catastrophic fires are likely to increase in the future, as climate warms in the northern hemisphere upper latitudes of Russia.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFMGC41C0833S
- Keywords:
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- 0315 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Biosphere/atmosphere interactions;
- 0428 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Carbon cycling;
- 1632 GLOBAL CHANGE / Land cover change;
- 1640 GLOBAL CHANGE / Remote sensing