Copernicus Publications, Geoscientific Model Development Discussions, p. 1-24
DOI: 10.5194/gmd-2016-89
Full text: Download
Black carbon (BC) emitted from fires in Northern Eurasia can be transported and deposited on ice and snow in the Arctic and can accelerate its melting during certain times of the year. Thus, we developed a high spatial resolution (500 m × 500 m) dataset to examine daily BC emissions from fires in this region from 2002 to 2013. BC emissions were estimated based on MODIS land cover maps and detected burned areas, the Forest Inventory Survey of the Russian Federation, the IPCC Tier-1 Global Biomass Carbon Map for the year 2000, and biomass specific BC emission factors. Annual BC emissions from Northern Eurasian fires varied greatly, ranging from 0.43 Tg in 2010 to 2.14 Tg in 2013, with an average of 0.82 ± 0.50 Tg from 2002 to 2013. BC emissions from forest fires accounted for about two-thirds of the emissions, followed by grassland fires (15 %). Central and Western Asia was the major source region for BC emissions from grassland fires (53 %). Russia contributed 83 % of the total BC emissions from fires in Northern Eurasia. BC emissions were the highest in the years of 2003, 2008, and 2012. Approximately 57 % of the BC emissions from fires occurred in spring (March, April, and May) and 31 % in summer. The high emissions in spring also coincide with the most intense period of ice and snow melting in the Arctic.