Remote sensing constraints on South America fire traits by Bayesian fusion of atmospheric and surface data

A. Anthony Bloom, Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, abloom@jpl.nasa.gov (Presenter)
John R. Worden, JPL, john.r.worden@jpl.nasa.gov
Zhe Jiang, JPL, zhe.jiang@jpl.nasa.gov
Helen Worden, NCAR, hmw@ucar.edu
Thomas Kurosu, JPL, thomas.kurosu@jpl.nasa.gov
Christian Frankenberg, JPL, christian.frankenberg@jpl.nasa.gov
David Schimel, JPL, david.schimel@jpl.nasa.gov

Satellite observations reveal substantial burning during the 2007 and 2010 tropical South America fire season, with both years exhibiting similar total burned area. However, 2010 CO fire emissions, based on satellite CO concentration measurements, were substantially lower (−28%), despite the once-in-a-century drought in 2010. We use Bayesian inference with satellite measurements of CH4 and CO concentrations and burned area to quantify shifts in combustion characteristics in 2010 relative to 2007. We find an 88% probability in reduced combusted biomass density associated with the 2010 fires, and an 82% probability of lower fire carbon losses in 2010 relative to 2007. Higher combustion efficiency was a smaller contributing factor to reduced 2010 CO emissions. The reduction in combusted biomass density is consistent with a reduction (4-6%) in GOME-2 solar induced fluorescence (a proxy for gross primary production) during the preceding months and a potential reduction in biomass (≤8.3%) due to repeat fires.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  General Contributions   (Tue 4:35 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Worden, John: CH4 Emissions Estimates From Tropical and Subtropical Fires Using Aura TES CH4 and Terra MOPITT CO Profiles ...details

Poster Location ID: 117