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

This paper presents the statistics of direct wildfire carbon emission estimates during the wildfires of 2021 on forest lands of Russia using long-term satellite data. In 2021, the area affected by forest wildfires was 9.3 million ha, while carbon emissions amounted to 66.4 MtC. Said 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 said year was anomalous with respect to the entire time series, similar to the wildfire seasons of 2003 and 2012. A period or interval for recurrence of three anomalous wildfire seasons is nine years. The reason for the recurrence of anomalous wildfire seasons is yet to be found. At the same time, the forest areas affected by wildfires, and direct carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions in anomalous wildfire years decreased from 127.2 MtC (3.7 times) in 2003 to 83.8 MtC (2.4 times) in 2012, and to 66.4 MtC (1.9 times) in 2021.