GFMC: Forest Fires in the Russian Federation

Avialesookhrana from the National Forest Fire Centre of Russia provides up-to-date NOAA images for the whole of the Russian Federation and neighbour territories. The Space Monitoring Information Support Laboratory provides extensive links to sites with satellite imagery for the Russian Federation, meteorological information as well as fire related images are accessible.

The NOAA AVHRR satellite image composite shows fire activities in the Russian Federation.

NOAA 12 & 14 AVHRR composite of 2 August 2002.
The red squares indicate regions of active fires. For details the GFMC readers are encouraged to use the hyperlinks provided by Avialesookhrana, the Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of the Federal Forest service of Russia.
(Source: Avialesookhrana cloudiness maps)

According to the situation report of the Ministry of Natural Resources of 31 July 2002 a total of 366 fires affected 4,849 ha forested and 2,448 ha non‑forested areas. In addition 167 fires occurred that were put out the same day when they started.
Since the beginning of the 2002 fire season for Ministry of Natural Resources a total of 21,160 fires affected 620,773 ha forested and 325,837 ha non‑forested land.
Highest fire activities were recorded in Central and Northern European part of Russia in the following regions: Moscow region-97 fires, Iaroslavl-39, Kostroma –18?Vologda –31, Nizhiy Novgorod –23, Komi-17, Arkhangelsk-22. There are lot of peat fires in East of Moscow region (Shatura), Vladimir region, Iaroslavl region (along the Volga river), Kostroma region. So pretty smoke from them. Today even was cancelled the detection flight in Moscow region for low visibility reason. For instance in Moscow region today were involved to fire fighting 737 people and 222 engines and dozers. But peat fires very difficult to put out. Depth of peat sometimes get several meters and temperature in the depth get 1200-1300 degree C.
In Siberia high fire activity retain in Iakutia –55 fires and 20 of it –large fires, the biggest is 25,000 ha. Just on 10 large fires have involved heavy techniques, on other 10 going on just confining activity.
Through all of Russia on fire fighting have been involved 5,485 people, 53 aircraft, 915 bulldozers, tractors and engines.
Source: Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of Russia (Avialesookhrana)

Operational Significant Event Imagery (OSEI)
The following significant event was identified by Satellite Analysis Branch meteorologists and reviewed by the OSEI support team of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):

UPDATE - Forest fires blanket Moscow in smog
Source: ABC News, 31 July 2002

"Muscovites awoke on Wednesday to find their city covered in smog with the smell of burning from wildfires raging outside the Russian capital.
A slight easterly wind pushed the smoke toward the city, as far as the centre, but was not strong enough to disperse it, said meteorological experts quoted by Moscow Echo radio. Moscow media said the smoke posed a health risk to residents of the city.
The authorities have identified 76 separate wildfires in the Moscow region, which has been affected for several weeks by a heatwave, Moscow Echo radio reported.
According to the emergencies ministry, the surface area of forest on fire around Moscow has risen sharply in the past 24 hours, reaching 260 acres, ITAR-TASS reported. Helicopters have joined in efforts to put out the forest fires, of which the two most severe are the Shatura region, east of Moscow.Forest fires blanket Moscow in smog."

Eurasian Experimental Fire Weather Information System
The system has been developed by forest fire researchers from Canada, Russia and Germany is displayed on this website starting 18 July 2001. Complete information and a set of daily fire weather and fire behaviour potential maps covering Eurasia (the Baltic Region, Eastern Europe, countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Mongolia) can be accessed at:
http://www.uni-freiburg.de/fireglobe/fwf/eurasia.htm

Example of the Eurasian Experimental Fire Weather Information System:
The Experimental Fire Weather Index (FWI) for Russia and neighbouring countries, 2 August 2002.

Daily Fire Occurrence and Fire Danger Maps of the Fire Laboratory of the Sukachev Institute of Forest, Krasnoyarsk
Selected fire occurrence maps, satellite images and a forest fire danger map are prepared daily by the Russian GFMC correspondent Dr. Anatoly Sukhinin, Fire Laboratory of the Sukachev Institute of Forest, Krasnoyarsk, in collaboration with the Emergency Situation Monitoring and Forecasting Agency, Krasnoyarsk branch. The maps are produced on the base of satellite data (classification by the NOAA AVHRR). They show the fire locations (by latitude and longitude) and the area affected by fire (red signature, size in ha). The red arrow at each fire location points to the nearest populated place. The terms Oblast or Krai used in the maps are designations of administrative regions. A map showing the boundaries of administrative regions and a legend is included below.


Map legend	Administrative boundaries

Overview map showing large fire locations covering the 10-days period 22 July to 1 August 2002:

Overview


Republic Sakha (Yakutia)	Republic Sakha (Yakutia)	Republic Sakha (Yakutia)

Republic Sakha (Yakutia)	Republic Sakha (Yakutia)	Republic Sakha (Yakutia)

Chitinskaija Oblast	Amurskaia Oblast	Khanty-Mansisk

Bibliography on fire in ecosystems of boreal Eurasia:
One of the results of the first international fire science conference in the Russian Federation (1993) was the publication of a monograph on fire in boreal Eurasia, including some selected contributions on boreal North America. The literature cited in the monograph contains numerous publications which in many cases are not easily accessible. To facilitate literature search the bibliographical sources are provided by topic (chapter).
Goldammer, J.G. and V.V.Furyaev. 1996. Fire in Ecosystems of Boreal Eurasia. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 390 p.