GFMC: Forest Fires in the Russian Federation

Forest Fires  in the Russian Federation  

29 May 2009


Fires in Russia’s Far East

Large fires were burning in the forests of Siberia between the Amur River (known as Heilong Jiang in China) and the Bureya River on 24 May 2009, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image. Places where the sensor detected actively burning fires are marked in red. Dark brownish-purple patches on the landscape are burn scars from previous fires. Thick smoke in the eastern part of the image may be from these fires as well as fires farther west, south of Lake Baikal. Both accidental and natural forest fires are common in spring and summer in Russia.

AQUA
24 May 2009

The large image provided above is at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel.

(source: earth observatory)

GFMC analysis: According to the latest satellite-derived analysis provided by the Sukachev Institute for Forest (Krasnoyarsk) the total area burned by 29 May in the Russian Federation is

11 801 990 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.

Fire danger map for 29 May for Eastern Siberia:

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.

click to enlarge (360 KB)

Latest (29 May 9:00 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)

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

Fire situation report of the Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service of Russia (Avialesookhrana)

According to the wildfire situation report of 28 May 2009 a total of  84 fires affected 14,931 ha forested and 4,613 ha non-forested lands, 31 fires of them were reported as new fires. Through all of Russia  2,807 people, 11 aircraft, 534 bulldozers, tractors and engines have been involved in fire fighting. Since the beginning of the 2009 fire season a total of 13,352 fires affected 697,180 ha forested and 327,383 ha non-forested lands of the Forest Fund of Russia .
Most fires have been reported in the following regions:

  • Tumen region– 11;
  • Zabaykalskiy region – 17;
  • Habarovsk region – 25.

There are large fires in following regions:

  • Habarovsk region – 9 fires,burning area 6,080 ha and 980 ha non-forested lands.

Source: Aerial Forest Fire Center of Russia (Avialesookhrana), prepared for GFMC by Eduard Davidenko and Sadovskaya Raisa

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)

click to enlarge (29 KB)

Map legend

Administrative boundaries

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

click here to enlarge (561 KB)

Overview

Latest maps maps showing fire activities of  29 May 2009 (selection):

click to enlarge (40-50 KB) click to enlarge (40-50 KB) click to enlarge (40-50 KB) Kurganskaya obl. Krasnoyarskiy kray Omskaya obl.

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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