Atmospheric scientist Dr. Santiago Gasso says the fires burning in the Siberian regions of Krasnoyarsk Krai and Sakha have "now created a smoke lid extending over 4 and half million (square km) over central northern Asia. This is staggering."
Gasso says the layer of smoke is equivalent to that of a thin cloud "resulting in major reduction of solar radiation to the surface."
In addition to just being plain nasty for air quality, all that smoke also creates a nasty feedback that could exacerbate climate change, which helped create the dry tinder-box conditions fueling the record northern wildfires.
"It is unusual to see fires of this scale and duration at such high latitudes in June,” Parrington said earlier this month. “But temperatures in the Arctic have been increasing at a much faster rate than the global average, and warmer conditions encourage fires to grow and persist once they have been ignited."
Indeed, last month was the warmest June on record for the planet.
Parrington says the amount of CO2 added to the atmosphere by Arctic wildfires during the first three weeks of July is equal to the annual fossil fuel CO2 emissions for Bulgaria, Hungary and Sweden.
Making matters worse is the double-whammy effect of dark particulate matter like soot falling on northern icy areas, making them absorb more sunlight and accelerating melting.
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IRKUTSK REGION, RUSSIA - MAY 27, 2019: A wildfire in the village of Melnichnaya Pad; volunteers managed to stop the fire from spreading to a summer camp for children. Kirill Shipitsin/TASS (Photo by Kirill ShipitsinTASS via Getty Images)
Kirill Shipitsin/TASSAs of Wednesday morning, much of the top of the world is smoked out. Satellites in orbit have been monitoring huge plumes of smoke from wildfires in parts of Russia, including Siberia, as well as Canada and Alaska.
For the past few months now, scientists with Europe's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) have been keeping an eye on over 100 fires above the Arctic Circle, all pumping particulates and other pollution into the sky.
"I think it's fair to say July Arctic Circle #wildfires are now at unprecedented levels," Copernicus senior scientist Mark Parrington said on Twitter Monday.
Atmospheric scientist Dr. Santiago Gasso says the fires burning in the Siberian regions of Krasnoyarsk Krai and Sakha have "now created a smoke lid extending over 4 and half million (square km) over central northern Asia. This is staggering."
Gasso says the layer of smoke is equivalent to that of a thin cloud "resulting in major reduction of solar radiation to the surface."
In addition to just being plain nasty for air quality, all that smoke also creates a nasty feedback that could exacerbate climate change, which helped create the dry tinder-box conditions fueling the record northern wildfires.
"It is unusual to see fires of this scale and duration at such high latitudes in June,” Parrington said earlier this month. “But temperatures in the Arctic have been increasing at a much faster rate than the global average, and warmer conditions encourage fires to grow and persist once they have been ignited."
Indeed, last month was the warmest June on record for the planet.
Parrington says the amount of CO2 added to the atmosphere by Arctic wildfires during the first three weeks of July is equal to the annual fossil fuel CO2 emissions for Bulgaria, Hungary and Sweden.
Making matters worse is the double-whammy effect of dark particulate matter like soot falling on northern icy areas, making them absorb more sunlight and accelerating melting.
#News | https://sciencespies.com/news/unprecedented-wildfires-are-cloaking-the-arctic-in-smoke/
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