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This wildfire season in California has been phenomenal so far, setting off thousands of fires – one of them being, about one million acres burned down, the largest single fire in the state’s history – and it blows up so much smoke that air quality is affected thousands of miles away.
Wildfires can also have a global climate impact, as burning vegetation releases carbon dioxide that warms the planet. From June to August, California fires released twice as much CO2 than the same period last year, far more than any other summer in nearly two decades.
This is the conclusion of the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service, which is funded by the European Union and has estimated emissions based on satellite measurements available since 2003. He said that over three months, the California fires released more than 75 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
This is a small amount compared to the annual worldwide CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels. About 33 billion tons this year. And most of the CO2 emitted by wildfires can stabilize over time as vegetation that recolonizes burned areas uses CO2 to grow. Still, any additional amount of CO2 in the atmosphere contributes to warming.
Overall, fires in the western United States have released 130 million tons of CO2 this summer, according to the agency’s estimates. This included about 17 million tons, more than 10 times the amount released in Oregon last year. The Bootleg fire, which burned more than 400,000 acres in July and August, was one of the largest in Oregon history. The Dixie fire in Northern California is the largest in that state.
The scorching summer temperatures in much of the West, combined with severe drought, caused fires to grow rapidly, sometimes consuming tens of thousands of acres in a matter of hours.
“The drier the ground, the drier the vegetation,” said Mark Parrington, a senior scientist and wildfire expert at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. “Add drought to that, and it accelerates the scale of the fire.”
So far in California, wildfires have burned nearly 2.3 million acres, which is less than last year’s total on this date. However, Dr. Emissions from June to August are higher this year, as severe fires often start earlier than last year with drought, Parrington said.
The agency said the bushfire season was severe, with emissions breaking records in other parts of the Northern Hemisphere as well.
Great fires broke out in western Canada and around the Mediterranean basinIncluding one that grew from a few acres to 120,000 acres in less than three weeks in Greece.
In the Sakha Republic in northeastern Siberia, where large summer fires are not uncommon, this summer has been particularly badWith severe fires that started in June.
The burning area in Sakha is much larger than in California, and emissions are much higher as a result. The agency estimated CO2 emissions at more than 750 million tonnes over the three months, double the previous year.
Most of the Siberian fires were below the Arctic Circle, unlike last year when most of the area burned was in the Arctic. This year, Arctic wildfires released about 65 million tons of CO2 over the summer, the agency said.
Copernicus uses data from sensors on several NASA satellites that measure surface gloss temperatures in near real time. It then looks for deviations from normal temperatures that indicate a fire and estimates how much energy the fire emits. From this, he estimates how much carbon dioxide and other gases are emitted, using information about vegetation types.
Other groups estimate fire emissions after the season ends, using aerial or satellite imagery of burn marks and other data. Dr. Historically, his agency’s estimates “compared quite well” to others, Parrington said.
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