Thread by @jmccarty_geo

Friday deep dive into #ArcticFires of Siberia, focusing on the 8,000+ fires detected by MODIS & VIIRS satellites between May 2020 and mid-July 2020 at latitudes above 70°N. (A thread).

Important to note that Arctic fire regimes are not novel, but seem to be increasing in number. Here, @iccinet Climate Change Intern and @StOlaf undergraduate student, @BradenPohl, maps fires for last 3 years in northern Krasnoyarsk Krai and Sakha Republic.

Braden and @jj_fain created this fire density heatmap in @qgis, highlighting that certain areas tend to burn regularly, like northern Krasnoyarsk Krai, along Lena River, south of Yana Bay, and south of East Siberian Sea. Human-caused fires? Start looking here.

We took some time to hand draw wildfire complexes in Sentinel-2 imagery. Using those burned areas only (and not active fire points) spring & early summer fire season of 2020 has burned 20,000+ km2 than 2019 or 2018. We assumed 1/2 surface & 1/2 peat fires to calculate emissions.

We calculated black carbon emissions and used @NASAEarth Worldview to find good examples of smoke transport to Laptev Sea. It wasn’t hard, unfortunately. Likely black carbon deposition occurring on what’s left of the sea ice. Follow @ZLabe for updates.

We hope this adds to clarion call to Arctic nations and the global #ClimateChange community- we ignore Arctic Fire Regimes at our on peril. Thank you to Braden & the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative.

Read blog here: iccinet.org/burning-the-hi…