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Newsflash, Bonn, 05/07/2022

Animation of daily global fire activity from 1 January to 30 June 2022.​ Credit: Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service/ECMWF

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service is tracking wildfires around the Northern Hemisphere at the start of the boreal forest fire season. Europe has seen some fires in Spain, France and Germany during early summer in addition to wildfires in Alaska and southwestern US; CAMS monitored wildfires in New Mexico burning since mid-April and that were still burning throughout the end of May and into the start of June.

Scientists from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) are continuously tracking the start and duration of the 2022 boreal forest fire season in the Northern Hemisphere, including the start and development of fire seasons in regions of Siberia and North America. CAMS, implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Commission, consistently monitors the intensity and emissions from fires across the world.

GFASv1.2 daily total fire radiative power between – 1-30 June 2022 for Spain (left) and June total estimated carbon emissions (right) for Spain from 2003 to 2022. Credit: Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service/ECMWF

In Europe, CAMS monitored the large wildfire development in Andalucia, near the Costa del Sol, Spain, starting on 8 June 2022, which caused 2.000 persons to evacuate from the nearby town on Benahavis. The GFAS data for Andalucia shows extreme relative daily total FRP compared to 2003-2021 mean. CAMS also tracked numerous other fires throughout Spain, including the high fire activity observed in the Castilla y León region starting in mid-June, where unusually high temperatures and strong winds further contributed to the intensity of the devastating fires. Our monitoring does not only look at the intensity of the fires, but also analyses the wider scale impacts of wildfires and smoke emissions, including their impact on air quality, which can cause the various respiratory issues and other damages on human health.

In North America, large wildfires developed in the southwestern US, where a notable fire persisted in New Mexico from mid-April through to the beginning of June 2022. More recently, CAMS observed a growing number of wildfires burning in Alaska throughout June 2022.

GFASv1.2 daily total fire radiative power since 1 June 2022 (left) and June total estimated carbon emissions (right) for Alaska. Credit: Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service/ECMWF

Every summer, CAMS scientists pay particular attention to fires in the boreal forests and at high northern latitudes. In the first weeks of June, a growing number of fires, above the 2003-2021 average, developed in Alaska, including within the Arctic Circle, which led to some smoke transport across the Beaufort Sea towards the Arctic Ocean. The data on the Arctic fires have been showing typical daily values of throughout June, but CAMS is monitoring closely as more fires have started in the Sakha Republic and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug over the last couple of weeks.

Daily total fire radiative power from 1 April to 30 June (left), with red bars showing 2022 and grey bars showing 2003-2021 mean, and total estimated carbon emissions for the same period (right) for Central Siberia, which is an equivalent reference to the Ural and Siberian Federal Districts. Credit: Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service/ECMWF

CAMS data show that for the period between 1 April and 30 June the total estimated carbon emissions from spring fires (including forest fires and open burning for agriculture) for the Ural and Siberian Federal Districts, despite a relatively intense start to the season, was close to the average of previous years in the dataset (2003-2020) for the time of year. The Far Eastern Federal District typically experiences fires in summer rather than spring and is currently showing typical values for this time in the season.

The boreal fire season typically lasts from May to October with peak activity between July and August. CAMS data revealed a specific increase in fire activity in terms of the observed Fire Radiative Power (FRP) in the Arctic Circle.  CAMS fire monitoring data shows that total carbon emissions for this region are at similar values as this time in 2021, and other years in the dataset prior to 2019, with much lower values than the record years of 2020 and 2019.

Mark Parrington, Senior Scientist and wildfire expert in CAMS, comments: “In recent summers we have observed large-scale and persistent wildfires around the Northern Hemisphere, and we are already closely monitoring the fires which have developed through the spring and early summer. So far this summer we have been seeing fairly typical trends, other than in New Mexico and Alaska. Although the northern hemisphere fire activity hasn’t been particularly unusual, we know that increased flammability of vegetation has increased the risk of large wildfires the actual occurrence and scales are difficult to predict. For this reason, and in order to provide timely information, CAMS continues to monitor the fire activity in these regions and worldwide throughout all stages, as well as fire intensity and the resulting smoke they emit.”

CAMS is monitoring global fires and estimates the emissions they cause with its Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS), using instruments on satellites and in-situ data. The estimated emissions are combined with the ECMWF weather forecast system, which models the transport and chemistry of atmospheric pollutants, to predict how the global air quality will be affected up to five days ahead.

An international study, detecting an unprecedented change in Europe’s fire regime, linked to climate change, has been prepared by a consortium of European and International research institutions that include the University of Barcelona, ​​CREAF, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development of the National Observatory of Athens (Greece), the European Space Agency (ESRIN), the University of Salento (Italy), and the University of Patras (Greece). Leading climatologists, experts in forest fire risk and forest ecology are taking part (Jofre Carnicer, Andrés Alegria, Christos Giannakopoulos, Francesca Di Giuseppe, Anna Karali, Nikos Koutsias, Piero Lionello, Mark Parrington, and Claudia Vitolo). This study observes and detects the emergence of nonlinear and rapidly changing relationships between the higher fire risk weather conditions associated with climate change and the impacts of fire on societies.

You can find more information on this year’s fire season here: https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/wildfire-activity-higher-latitudes-during-spring-and-early-summer/?PR

The CAMS Global Fire Monitoring Page can be accessed here: https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/fire-monitoring

Find out more about fire monitoring in the CAMS Wildfire Q&As: https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/qa-wildfires

For requests concerning satellite imagery, please contact: DEFIS.communication@spacetec.partners

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