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Satellite Monitoring of Multiyear Wildfires and Related Emissions of Harmful Trace Gases into the Air Environment of Australia

  • USE OF SPACE INFORMATION ABOUT THE EARTH STUDYING CATASTROPHIC NATURAL PROCESSES FROM SPACE
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Abstract

The results of wildfire satellite monitoring and estimates of the volumes of related emissions of CO and CO2 carbon-bearing trace gases and PM2.5 fine aerosol for the whole territory of Australia and its individual regions for the period from 2001 to 2020 are presented. The largest values of the areas covered by fire (more than 320 000 km2) are found for 2001, 2002, 2011, and 2012, and the maximum volumes of harmful trace gas emissions are found for September 2011. Abnormally large values of the areas of fires (3.5–25.8 times more than in previous years) are seen for 2019 in New South Wales, a state in southeastern Australia, which were caused by abnormally high temperatures of the earth’s surface. According to TROPOMI (Sentinel-5P satellite), the aerosol plume from wildfires in Australia, which occurred from December 30, 2019, to January 2, 2020, spread over a distance of more than 3000 km.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, MOST (China), and DST (India) as part of scientific project no. 19-55-80021.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Scientific Research of Aerospace Monitoring AEROCOSMOS, 105064, Moscow, Russia

    V. G. Bondur, O. S. Voronova, K. A. Gordo, A. L. Zima & N. V. Feoktistova

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  1. V. G. Bondur
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  2. O. S. Voronova
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  3. K. A. Gordo
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  4. A. L. Zima
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Correspondence to V. G. Bondur.

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Translated by V. Selikhanovich

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Bondur, V.G., Voronova, O.S., Gordo, K.A. et al. Satellite Monitoring of Multiyear Wildfires and Related Emissions of Harmful Trace Gases into the Air Environment of Australia. Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 57, 1029–1041 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433821090449

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