QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATES OF DIRECT PYROGENIC CARBON EMISSIONS IN FORESTS OF RUSSIA ACCORDING TO REMOTE MONITORING DATA 2021

Abstract

The paper presents statistic of the amount of direct Carbon emissions during wildfires of 2021 in the forested lands of Russia using long-term satellite data. In 2021, the area of ​​forest fire damages was 9.3 million hectares, and the amount of Carbon emissions was 66.4 MtC. These values are almost two points higher than the long-term average values. A comparison of similar indicators for twenty years allowed us to conclude that that year is anomalous with respect to the entire time series, similarly to the fire seasons of 2003 and 2012. The period or interval of recurrence of three anomalous fire seasons is nine years. We do not know the reason for the recurrence of anomalous fire seasons. At the same time, the forested areas damaged of the wildfires and the amount of direst Carbon and other greenhouse gases emissions in anomalous fire season years decreases from 127.2 MtC (3.7 p.) in 2003, 83.8 MtC (2.4 p.) in 2012 to 66.4 MtC (1.9 p.) in 2021.