GC33D-0549:
Black Carbon Emissions from Fires in Northern Eurasia from 2002 to 2012
Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Wei Min Hao1, Alexander Petkov1, Rachel Corley1, Bryce Nordgren1, Robin Silverstein1 and Shawn P Urbanski2, (1)US Forest Service Missoula, Missoula, MT, United States, (2)USDA Forest Service, Missoula, MT, United States
Abstract:
Northern Eurasia covers 20% of the global land mass and contains 70% of the boreal forest. During certain times of the year, black carbon (BC) in smoke plumes in high latitudes may be transported and deposited on Arctic ice and accelerate ice melting. It is thus imperative to better understand daily sources, transport, and deposition of BC in Northern Eurasia. We examined daily BC emissions from fires over different land cover types in Northern Eurasia at a 500 m x 500 m resolution from 2002 to 2012. Black carbon emissions were estimated based on the MODIS land cover maps and detected burned areas, the Forest Inventory Survey of the Russian Federation, and emission factors of BC for different types of vegetation fires. Our estimated annual burned areas in Northern Eurasia varied considerably from 1.6 × 105 km2 (2011) to 4.9 × 105 km2 (2003) with an average of 2.6 × 105 km2. Grassland dominates the total burned area (61%) and followed by forest (27%). For grassland fires, about three-quarters of the burned area occurred in Central and Western Asia and about 17% in Russia. More than 90% of the forest burned area was in Russia. Annual BC emissions from fires varied enormously from 4.1 ×108 kg in 2010 to 2.1 × 109 kg in 2003 with an average of 8.5×108 kg. In contrast to burned area, BC emissions were dominated by forest fires which accounted for about two-thirds of the emissions, followed by grassland fires (15%). More than 90% of the BC emissions from forest fires occurred in Russia. Central and Western Asia is the major region for BC emissions from grassland fires (53%), followed by Russia (34%). There are no apparent trends in area burned or BC emissions from 2002 to 2012. Overall, Russia contributed 83% of the total BC emissions from fires in Northern Eurasia. These results are critical in understanding the future impacts of climate change on the fire dynamics in Northern Eurasia and the contribution of black carbon to accelerated melting of Arctic ice.
