Wildfires and the spread of smoke from forest fires in the Krasnoyarsk territory in summer 2019

Abstract

Abstract Forest fires in the Siberian regions of Russia received significant attention in the media and social networks in the summer months of 2019, much more than in previous years. There was an impression of a significant increase in their number and area. However, satellite monitoring data showed that this is just half the truth. The forest areas covered by fires were indeed significant, but at the same time comparable in values with a number of previous seasons. And a strong increase was not observed. Moreover, a significant part of the summer period in the territories where firefighting is carried out (firefighting zone), the area of fires was about half as much as in the previous year. Our research has shown that, most likely, the reason for the increased attention to this topic is associated with significant smoke from forest fires in the territory of Siberia due to unique meteorological conditions such as the distribution of areas of high pressure, lack of precipitation, and so on. This hypothesis has been confirmed by the results of analysis of the spatial and temporal distribution of the ultraviolet aerosol index calculated from the data of OMPS instrument of the Suomi-NPP meteorological satellite.