GFMC: Forest Fires in the Russian Federation
Forest Fires in the Russian Federation
07 May 2003
Latest News:
During firefighting operations with bucket one Emercom helicopter, Typ MI-26, had an accident and crashed down in Chita. The crew members, four reporters and one Avialesookhrana pilot-observer died. The cause of this accident is still unknown at the moment.
Latest Satellite Images:
Fires Southeast of Lake Baikal
Southeast of Lake Baikal (top left corner), scores of fires are burning across southern Russia on 07 May 2003. This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Aqua satellite shows active fires marked with red dots. The fires are producing rivers of smoke which extend far to the south into China and have spread eastward over the Pacific Ocean. The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters.
Source: NASA/ EO
Smoke Over Japan and the Pacific Ocean
A river of smoke almost 1,500 kilometers (937 miles) wide is stretching more than 2,200 kilometers (1,375 miles) over the Pacific Ocean from fires in eastern and southern Russia. This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Terra satellite on 07 May 2003, shows the plume crossing over eastern Russia (left) and then over (top to bottom) Sakhalin Island, and Hokkaido and Honshu, Japan. An especially dense area of smoke can be seen as a tan streak across the southern tip of Sakhalin Island. These fires occur each spring, although the intensity of the burning varies. The fires have a variety of causes. Some are wildfires started by lightning, and others are planned fires being used as an agricultural land management tool (clearing brush, renewing pasture and farmland). In some cases, these planned fires get out of control and invade nearby boreal forests. The boreal forest fires tend to produce a lot of smoke, as not only the trees burn, but also the thick layer of peat on the forest floor. The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters.
Source: NASA/ EO
Heat signatures (red) and smoke (light blue haze) are visible from fires burning in parts of Russia, China and Mongolia in this NoAA-16 Images from 05 May 2003 (left) and 07 May 2003 (right).
Source: OSEI
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.
Latest NOAA 12&14 AVHRR composite
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)
Latest fire situation report by the Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of Russia (Avialesookhrana), 07 May 2003
For the last days fire activities retain very severe around Lake Baikal, Amur and Khabarovsk regions.
According to the situation report of the Ministry of Natural Resources of 7 May 2003 a total of 516 fires affected 27,765 ha forested and 5,581 ha non-forested areas. 137 fires of them were reported as new fires. In addition 79 fires occurred that were put out the same day when they started.
Since the beginning of the 2003 fire season a total of 5,971 fires affected 253,273 ha forested and 120,798 ha non-forested land under the responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources. (For comparison: Last year up to this date 4,785 fires had burnt 29,818 ha forested and 21,281 ha non-forested lands.)
Most fires have been reported in the following regions:
Chita region – 183 fires
Buriatia – 122
Irkutsk – 103
Khabarovsk – 42
Amur 16
Altay-16
Krasnoiarsk-30
Large fires were reported in:
Chita region – 112 fires, the biggest is 4,500 ha. 51 of them-are contained.
Buriatia 17 fires, the biggest is 1,920 ha
Altay 9 fires, the biggest is 1,000 ha. All of them in contained stage.
Irkutsk -8 fires, the biggest is 300 ha.
Khabarovsk-15 fires, the biggest is 1,500 ha. All of them in contained stage.
Amur-2 fires, the biggest is 7,500 ha/
Through all of Russia 7,116 people, 43 aircraft, 1,172 bulldozers, tractors and engines have been involved in fire fighting.
Source: Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of Russia (Avialesookhrana)
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:
https://gfmc.online/fwf/eurasia1.htm
Example of the Eurasian Experimental Fire Weather Information System:
Latest map of the Experimental Fire Weather Index (FWI) for Russia and neighbouring countries
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 Kray used in the maps are designations of administrative regions. A map showing the boundaries ofadministrative regions and a legend is included below.
Map legend
Administrative boundaries
Overview map showing large fire locations detected over the last 10 days
Overview
Latest maps maps showing fire activities (selection)
Buryatiya Republic Buryatiya Republic Amurskaya Oblast
Amurskaya Oblast Amurskaya Oblast Chitinskaya Oblast
Chitinskaya Oblast Chitinskaya Oblast Irkutskaya Oblast
For more details on fire in the Russian Federation:
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.
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