GFMC: Forest Fires in the Russian Federation

Forest Fires  in the Russian Federation  

19 October 2005


GFMC analysis: According to the latest satellite-derived analysis provided by the Sukachev Institute  for Forest (Krasnoyarsk) the total area burned by 18 October  in the Russian Federation is 10 609 233 hectares (ha).
Note: The area burned includes all vegetation types (forest and non-forested land on the whole territory of the Russian Federation). For current fire statistics on forest lands of the Federal Russian Forest Fund compiled by Avialesookhrana see report below.

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.

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Latest (19 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 service of Russia.
(Source: Avialesookhrana cloudiness maps)

Khabarovsk Territory forest fires:

During the weekend 15-16 October, 12 new fires devastated 121 ha in the area. They are located in Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk, Amursk and Osipenko regions. In the last week fires covered about 1000 ha of forest and unforested lands. The most complex situation remains in Komsomolsk and Solnechny regions where due to a squally wind the fire from peatbogs transferred to forest stands. In spite of the fact that the number of fires there decreased to 9, the situation remains tense. The smoke is observed in Komsomolsk, Amursk, Elban  and other settlements.

Besides, the strong wind actually fanned burnings on the left bank of the Amur river. Plane observations revealed new  fire spots in the mouth of Khor river and Vyazemski region. Here also bogs and pigweed are burning. These fires were originated by local people leaving camp fires unsuppressed  and losing control over  grass burning. Now 244 men are participating in fire suppression, four planes and 67 units of other machinery.

Latest satellite scenes:

In Russia’s Far East, numerous fires were billowing thick smoke on 19 October 2005, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of the region. Active fires are marked in red.


AQUA
19 October 2005
7:25 hrs UTC
(Image courtesy MODIS)

(Source: Earth Observatory)

Many of the fires are burning in the Amur River valley, the low-lying area to the west of the forest-covered coastal mountains. Smoke spreads eastward over the Sea of Okhotsk (image right).

Latest fire situation report by the Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of Russia (Avialesookhrana), 23 September 2005

According to the wildfire situation report of September 22, 2005 of the Federal Forest Agency of Russia a total of 28 fires affected 56 ha forested and 33 ha non forested lands. 6 fires of them were reported as new fires. In addition 29 fires occurred that were put out the same day they have started.

Since the beginning of the 2005 fire season a total of 12,936 fires affected 318,151 ha forested and 90,273 ha non-forested lands of the Federal Forest Agency. (For comparison: Last year up to this date 21290 fires have burnt 400,661 ha forested and 78,960 ha non-forested lands.)

14 fires of them have been reported in Nizni Novgorod regions:

Through all of Russia 377 people, 6 aircraft, 87 bulldozers, tractors and engines have been involved in fire fighting.

Source: Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of Russia (Avialesookhrana), prepared for GFMC by Andrey M. Eritsov

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)

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Map legend

Administrative boundaries

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

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Overview

Latest maps maps showing fire activities of  18 October 2005 (selection)

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Amurskaya obl.

Amurskaya obl. Khabarovskiy kray

More maps of other regions are available on request: info@gfmc.org

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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