GFMC: Forest Fires in the Russian Federation

2003

Forest Fires in the Russian Federation

18 August 2003

GFMC analysis: According to the latest satellite-derived analysis the total area burned by 11 August 2003 in the Russian Federation is 23.40 million hectares (ha). For comparison: The total area burned of the whole fire season 2002 was 11.7 million ha (see references at bottom of this web page).

Source of satellite data: Sukachev Institute for Forest, Krasnoyarsk (A.Sukhinin), in cooperation with EMERKOM of Russia (Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations).

Latest Satellite Images:

The Siberian landscape is obscured by a veil of smoke from scores of fires burning across the region on 18 August 2003, 0150 GMT, Bands 721. This image of the fires (marked in red) was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite.

The Siberian landscape is obscured by a veil of smoke from scores of fires burning across the region on 17 August 2003, 0245 GMT, true color. This image of the fires (marked in red) was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite.

Location of large forest fires in Russia for 17 August 2003

This map is providing an overview of large fire locations in the Russian Federation. Details of fire locations reported by the regional airbases of Avialesookhrana and active fires detected by the MODIS sensors (on Terra and Aqua) are provided on two layers over a general Russian vegetation map – see: http://www.nffc.aviales.ru/data/fires_mos/view_daily_e.sht?a=russia

Source: Avialesookhrana, Pushkino

Fire danger map for 15 August 2003 for the Central Siberia:

Source: Sukachev Institute for Forest, Krasnoyarsk

Synoptic weather map for 18 August 2003 for the Russian Federation.

Source: Sukachev Institute for Forest, Krasnoyarsk

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)

Lightning data collected from 17 August 2003. Red dots are more powerful strikes and blue one are less.

Source: Avialesookhran and Technologies of Monitoring and Safety (TMS).

Latest fire situation report by the Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of Russia (Avialesookhrana), 17 August 2003

Magadan and Chukotka still under the strong fire activities. According to the situation report of the Ministry of Natural Resources of 17 August 2003 a total of 146 fires affected 265 ha forested and 1,169 ha non-forested areas. 25 fires of them were reported as new fires. In addition 31 fires occurred that were put out the same day when they started.

Since the beginning of the 2003 fire season a total of 22,978 fires affected 1,903,637 ha forested and 393,558 ha non-forested land under the responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources. (For comparison: Last year up to this date 25,268 fires had burnt 925,936 ha forested and 420,917 ha non-forested lands.)

Most fires have been reported in the following regions:

Sverdlovsk-5
Khantu-Mansiysk-17
Iakutia-24
Magadan-54
Kamchatka-11
There are 16 fires in Chukotka on rain deer pastures.

Large fires were reported in:

Kamchatka-9 fires, the biggest is 2,915 ha.
Magadan-8 fires, the biggest is 20,000 ha.
Iakutia-4 fires, the biggest is 1,670 ha.
Chukotka-1 fires on the rain deer pastures- 280,500 ha.

Through all of Russia 1,169 people, 19 aircraft, 123 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 of administrative regions and a legend is included below.

ru_fire_legend.gif (937 Byte)

Map legend

Administrative boundaries

Overview map showing large fire locations detected over the last 10 days

Overview

Latest maps maps showing fire activities of 17 August 2003 (selection)

Altaysky Kray Magadanskaya Oblast Magadanskaya Oblast

Respublika Sakha Respublika Sakha Respublika Sakha

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.

24. November 2017/by GFMCadmin