Monitoring Arctic and high-latitude wildfires in 2019 and 2020

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Parrington ◽  
Jessica McCarty ◽  
Thomas Smith ◽  
Merritt Turetsky ◽  
Francesca Di Giuseppe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
Atmospheric Pollutants ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Management Service ◽  
High Northern Latitude ◽  
Weather Forecasts ◽  
Climate Anomalies ◽  
Northern Latitude

<p>The boreal summers of 2019 and 2020 were witness to extensive high northern latitude wildfire activity, most notably within the Arctic Circle across eastern Russia. Near-real-time monitoring of the wildfire activity, based on satellite observations of active fires, showed widespread and persistent fires at a scale that had not been observed in the previous years that satellite observations are available. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) through its operation of, and contribution to, different Copernicus Services is in a unique position to provide detailed information to monitor high-latitude wildfire activity, including their evolution and potential impacts, when they occur. Fire weather forecasts from the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS), and surface climate anomalies from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) both provide context to the environmental conditions required for wildfires to persist. Analyses based on observations of fire radiative power, along with analyses and forecasts of associated atmospheric pollutants, from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) aid in quantifying the scale and intensity in near-real-time and the subsequent atmospheric impacts. We present an analysis of Arctic and high northern latitude wildfires during the summers of 2019 and 2020, reviewing the underlying meteorological/climatological conditions, the estimated emissions and transport of smoke constituents over the Arctic Ocean. We will show that the different datasets, while being relatively independent, show a strong correspondence and provide a wealth of information required to monitor and provide context for wildfire activity.</p>

Wildfire weather, intensity and smoke emissions of large-scale fire events in 2019

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Parrington ◽  
Francesca Di Giuseppe ◽  
Thomas Smith ◽  
Claudia Vitolo ◽  
Sebastien Garrigues ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Atmospheric Pollutants ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Management Service ◽  
Weather Forecasts ◽  
Climate Anomalies ◽  
Comprehensive Knowledge ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
Radiative Power

<p>Effective monitoring of global wildfire activity requires comprehensive knowledge of changing environmental (including atmospheric and hydrological) conditions, fuel availability and routine observations of fire locations and intensity. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) through its operation of, and contribution to, different Copernicus Services is in a unique position to provide detailed information on the conditions leading to wildland fire activity, the evolution of wildfires, and their potential impacts, when they occur. Fire weather forecasts from the Copernicus Emergency Management Service, and surface climate anomalies from the Copernicus Climate Change Service both provide context to the environmental conditions required for wildfires to persist. Analyses based on observations of fire radiative power, along with analyses and forecasts of associated atmospheric pollutants, from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service aid in quantifying the scale and intensity in near-real-time and the subsequent atmospheric impacts. During 2019, regions of anomalously hot and dry surface conditions in Arctic Siberia and southeast Australia experienced large-scale, long-duration wildfires which burned thousands of square kilometres with a total intensity that was significantly above the average of the previous 16 years of data in those regions. We present an overview of the evolution of fire activity in Siberia between June-August 2019, and Australia between September 2019-January 2020, based on ECMWF/Copernicus data for fire weather, climate anomalies and active fires. We will show that the different datasets, while being relatively independent, show a strong correspondence and provide a wealth of information vital to understanding global wildfires, their underlying causes and environmental impacts.</p>

scholarly journals Refinements in the use of equivalent latitude for assimilating sporadic inhomogeneous stratospheric tracer observations, 2: Precise altitude-resolved information about transport of Pinatubo aerosol to very high latitude

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 667-693
Author(s):  
P. Good ◽  
J. Pyle
Keyword(s):  
High Latitude ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Temporal Evolution ◽  
Potential Temperature ◽  
Stratospheric Aerosol ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Mount Pinatubo ◽  
Lidar Observations ◽  
Very High

Abstract. From high latitude lidar observations, quite precise information is extracted about the temporal evolution and vertical distribution of volcanic aerosol in the high latitude lower stratosphere following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Irreversible mixing of lower stratospheric aerosol, to the arctic pole during early 1992, is demonstrated, as a function of potential temperature and time. This work complements previous studies, which either identify vortex intrusions – without demonstrating irreversible transport, or use lower resolution satellite observations. The observed transport is associated tentatively with the vortex disturbance during late January 1992. A very large number of high resolution lidar observations of Mount Pinatubo aerosol are analysed, without any data averaging. Averaging in measurement or analysis can cause tracer mixing to be overestimated. Averaging in the analysis can also require assumptions about which quantity has the dominant error (in this case, the equivalent latitude coordinate or the measurement), and which part of the data contains real structure. The method below attempts to avoid such assumptions.

scholarly journals Refinements in the use of equivalent latitude for assimilating sporadic inhomogeneous stratospheric tracer observations, 2: Precise altitude-resolved information about transport of Pinatubo aerosol to very high latitude

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 1837-1848
Author(s):  
P. Good ◽  
J. Pyle
Keyword(s):  
High Latitude ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Temporal Evolution ◽  
Potential Temperature ◽  
Stratospheric Aerosol ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Mount Pinatubo ◽  
Lidar Observations ◽  
Very High

Abstract. From high latitude lidar observations, quite precise information is extracted about the temporal evolution and vertical distribution of volcanic aerosol in the high latitude lower stratosphere following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Irreversible mixing of lower stratospheric aerosol, to the arctic pole during early 1992, is demonstrated, as a function of potential temperature and time. This work complements previous studies, which either identify vortex intrusions - without demonstrating irreversible transport, or use lower resolution satellite observations. The observed transport is associated tentatively with the vortex disturbance during late January, 1992. A very large number of high resolution lidar observations of Mount Pinatubo aerosol are analysed, without any data averaging. Averaging in measurement or analysis can cause tracer mixing to be overestimated. Averaging in the analysis can also require assumptions about which quantity has the dominant error (in this case, the equivalent latitude coordinate or the measurement), and which part of the data contains real structure. The method below attempts to avoid such assumptions.

scholarly journals Temperature and Relative Humidity Profile Retrieval from Fengyun-3D/HIRAS in the Arctic Region

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1884
Author(s):  
Jingjing Hu ◽  
Yansong Bao ◽  
Jian Liu ◽  
Hui Liu ◽  
George P. Petropoulos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Relative Humidity ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Warm Season ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Cold Season ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
A New Technique ◽  
The Arctic Region

The acquisition of real-time temperature and relative humidity (RH) profiles in the Arctic is of great significance for the study of the Arctic’s climate and Arctic scientific research. However, the operational algorithm of Fengyun-3D only takes into account areas within 60°N, the innovation of this work is that a new technique based on Neural Network (NN) algorithm was proposed, which can retrieve these parameters in real time from the Fengyun-3D Hyperspectral Infrared Radiation Atmospheric Sounding (HIRAS) observations in the Arctic region. Considering the difficulty of obtaining a large amount of actual observation (such as radiosonde) in the Arctic region, collocated ERA5 data from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and HIRAS observations were used to train the neural networks (NNs). Brightness temperature and training targets were classified using two variables: season (warm season and cold season) and surface type (ocean and land). NNs-based retrievals were compared with ERA5 data and radiosonde observations (RAOBs) independent of the NN training sets. Results showed that (1) the NNs retrievals accuracy is generally higher on warm season and ocean; (2) the root-mean-square error (RMSE) of retrieved profiles is generally slightly higher in the RAOB comparisons than in the ERA5 comparisons, but the variation trend of errors with height is consistent; (3) the retrieved profiles by the NN method are closer to ERA5, comparing with the AIRS products. All the results demonstrated the potential value in time and space of NN algorithm in retrieving temperature and relative humidity profiles of the Arctic region from HIRAS observations under clear-sky conditions. As such, the proposed NN algorithm provides a valuable pathway for retrieving reliably temperature and RH profiles from HIRAS observations in the Arctic region, providing information of practical value in a wide spectrum of practical applications and research investigations alike.All in all, our work has important implications in broadening Fengyun-3D’s operational implementation range from within 60°N to the Arctic region.

scholarly journals Paleocene-Eocene volcanic segmentation of the Norwegian-Greenland seaway reorganized high-latitude ocean circulation

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Hovikoski ◽  
Michael B. W. Fyhn ◽  
Henrik Nøhr-Hansen ◽  
John R. Hopper ◽  
Steven Andrews ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Early Eocene ◽  
Subaerial Exposure ◽  
Thermal Maximum ◽  
Volcanic Facies

AbstractThe paleoenvironmental and paleogeographic development of the Norwegian–Greenland seaway remains poorly understood, despite its importance for the oceanographic and climatic conditions of the Paleocene–Eocene greenhouse world. Here we present analyses of the sedimentological and paleontological characteristics of Paleocene–Eocene deposits (between 63 and 47 million years old) in northeast Greenland, and investigate key unconformities and volcanic facies observed through seismic reflection imaging in offshore basins. We identify Paleocene–Eocene uplift that culminated in widespread regression, volcanism, and subaerial exposure during the Ypresian. We reconstruct the paleogeography of the northeast Atlantic–Arctic region and propose that this uplift led to fragmentation of the Norwegian–Greenland seaway during this period. We suggest that the seaway became severely restricted between about 56 and 53 million years ago, effectively isolating the Arctic from the Atlantic ocean during the Paleocene–Eocene thermal maximum and the early Eocene.

scholarly journals Airborne Hyperspectral Data Acquisition and Processing in the Arctic: A Pilot Study Using the Hyspex Imaging Spectrometer for Wetland Mapping

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1178
Author(s):  
Jordi Cristóbal ◽  
Patrick Graham ◽  
Anupma Prakash ◽  
Marcel Buchhorn ◽  
Rudi Gens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Maximum Likelihood ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Data Processing ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Hyperspectral Images ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Wetland Mapping ◽  
Kappa Index ◽  
Spectral Angle Mapper ◽  
Spectral Angle

A pilot study for mapping the Arctic wetlands was conducted in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge), Alaska. It included commissioning the HySpex VNIR-1800 and the HySpex SWIR-384 imaging spectrometers in a single-engine Found Bush Hawk aircraft, planning the flight times, direction, and speed to minimize the strong bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) effects present at high latitudes and establishing improved data processing workflows for the high-latitude environments. Hyperspectral images were acquired on two clear-sky days in early September, 2018, over three pilot study areas that together represented a wide variety of vegetation and wetland environments. Steps to further minimize BRDF effects and achieve a higher geometric accuracy were added to adapt and improve the Hyspex data processing workflow, developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), for high-latitude environments. One-meter spatial resolution hyperspectral images, that included a subset of only 120 selected spectral bands, were used for wetland mapping. A six-category legend was established based on previous U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) information and maps, and three different classification methods—hybrid classification, spectral angle mapper, and maximum likelihood—were used at two selected sites. The best classification performance occurred when using the maximum likelihood classifier with an averaged Kappa index of 0.95; followed by the spectral angle mapper (SAM) classifier with a Kappa index of 0.62; and, lastly, by the hybrid classifier showing lower performance with a Kappa index of 0.51. Recommendations for improvements of future work include the concurrent acquisition of LiDAR or RGB photo-derived digital surface models as well as detailed spectra collection for Alaska wetland cover to improve classification efforts.

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