20 August 2010

GFMC analysis: According to the latest satellite-derived analysis provided by the Sukachev Institute for Forest and Emercom (using the NOAA AVHRR satellite data) and the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (using the MODIS satellite data) the total area burned by 18 August 2010 in the Russian Federation is:

NOAA AVHRR: 5.9 million ha

MODIS: 5.8 million ha

Note: The area burned includes all vegetation types (forest and non-forested land on the whole territory of the Russian Federation, including territories in which fires are monitored only but not controlled). This explains the discrepancy of fire statistics published by various government sources, which exclusively refer to forests under fire protection (seeFAO Regional Fire Report Central Asia Region).

Fire danger map for 20 August:

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 (17 August 2010 09:00 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

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

Latest maps maps showing fire activities of 20 August 2010 (selection):

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

Overview

Latest maps maps showing fire activities of 20 July 2010 (selection):

Khakass RepublicKrasnodar KrayYamal-Nenets Autonomous Area/Okrug

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

News from the media:

Cold front ends Russia wildfire crisis

19/08/2010

A cold front has hit western Russia, finally ending an exhausting two-month heatwave and clearing skies over Moscow from suffocating smog.

Colder temperatures and rains are expected to help firefighters put down the wildfires that have dogged Russia through the summer.

The emergency situations ministry said the amount of land on fire has been halved in the last 24 hours.

It said the area covered by blazes is now about a 20th of the territory covered earlier this month when wildfires were at their peak.

The worst heatwave for at least 130 years triggered thousands of wildfires and drought has cost Russia a third of its wheat crop, prompting the government to ban wheat exports through to the year’s end. Source: www.breakingnews.ie

EnvironmentOver 60,000 hectares of peat bogs to be flooded near Moscow

The Moscow regional government plans to flood some 230 square miles of peat bogs to prevent the return of dangerous fires that paralyzed Russia’s capital for over two weeks.

The government said that flooding the peat bogs is the best preventative measure so that fires smoldering around Moscow do not return. The Moscow Region suffers from peat bog fires every year, though this year was the most disastrous due to a heat wave that began in mid-June with temperatures between 90 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

The government has set aside 300 million rubles ($9.85 million) to flood the peat bogs and extinguish those areas which are considered most critical.

Regional Governor Boris Gromov has said that alternative measures to flooding the bogs in fire prevention are inadequate.

“According to preliminary estimates, 72 sectors are to be flooded, which equates 64,000 hectares. Of those, 22 sectors are scheduled to be flooded before the end of the year. This is a massive task which is diligent and meticulous,” Gromov said.

Gromov said workers have already started flooding five sectors, and some 300 kilometers (186 miles) of water pipelines are being laid to saturate the peat bogs.

On Monday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin became acquainted with advanced technology of peat bog irrigation which will allow quenching the peat bog fires raging across Central Russia.

MOSCOW, August 19 (Source: RIA Novosti)

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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24. November 2017/by GFMCadmin