GFMC: Forest Fires in the Russian Federation
Forest Fires in the Russian Federation
18 October 2004
Latest Satellite Scene:
Autumn Fires in China and Russia
A river of smoke more than 100 kilometers wide streams several hundred kilometers southward from fires (marked in red) in northern China (top left) in this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite on 15 October 2004. Another large cluster of fires is burning in southeastern Russia (right).
Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov
Please compare “Amurskaya Oblast” at the Daily Fire Occurrence Maps of the Fire Laboratory of the Sukachev Institute of Forest, Krasnoyarsk, which are listed at the bottom of the page.
Vegetation Stress and Drought
For current forest fire danger please see the Experimental Fire Weather Index (FWI) further down. The FWI shows increased fire danger in Amurskaya Oblast.
Current Vegetation Health Image Map
The comparison with the vegetation stress map of 10 October 2004 shows that the current situation is not a consequence of accumulated vegetation stress but rather a consequence of short-term drought in NE China and Amurskaya Oblast. Kazakhstan, however, shows considerable drought-related vegetation fire stress (see Kazakhstan updates of last week).
Source: http://www.orbit.nesdis.noaa.gov/smcd/emb/vci/
News from the media: Maritime territory in smoke from forest fires
17.10.2004, 06.53
VLADIVOSTOK, October 17 (Itar-Tass) – The Primoyre (Maritime) territory in the Russian Far East is clouded with smoke on Sunday from forest and field fires in the Amur region, Khabarovsk region and northwest provinces of China.
Vladivostok residents have had for two days to inhale stifling smoky air. Medics do not recommend children and aged people to go out these days.
The northeaster carries the smoke from a large fire in a natural reserve in the Amur region through the Chinese territory and Khabarovsk region to Primorye, a duty officer of the regional hydrometeorology committee told Itar-Tass.
Photographs made from a satellite show the area of wildfires is exceeding 8,000 hectares in the south of the Far East.
Forests, bogs and grass are burning on an area of 1,500 hectares in Primorye and in the Jewish Autonomous Area on 1,900 hectares.
Two helicopters, a Mi-8 and Mi-2 are engaged in firefighting efforts from the air.
However, according to a duty officer of the aviation base of the regions forest service only heavy rains will be able to stop the fire spread.
Weathermen do not forecast precipitation in the coming days.
Source: Itar Tass
GFMC analysis: According to the latest satellite-derived analysis the total area burned by 17 October 2004 in the Russian Federation is 5 934 385 hectares (ha).
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 (18 October 03:00 GMT) NOAA 12&14 AVHRR composite
The red squares indicate regions of active fires (MODIS Detection). For details the GFMC readers are encouraged to use the hyperlinks provided by Avialesookhrana, the Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of the Federal Forest Agency, Ministry for Natural Resources, Russian Federation.
(Source: Avialesookhrana cloudiness maps)
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.
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 October 2004 (selection)
Amurskaya Oblast Amurskaya Oblast Amurskaya Oblast
Amurskaya Oblast Evreyskaya Oblast Evreyskaya Oblast
Evreyskaya Oblast Primorskiy Kray Primorskiy Kray
More maps of other regions are available on request: info@gfmc.org
For more details on fire in the Russian Federation:
- Russia 2002 fire report
- More Information about Russia in IFFN 28
- IFFN Reports from Russia
- Fire Research Campaign Asia-North (FIRESCAN)
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.
