body { -ms-overflow-style: scrollbar; overflow-y: scroll; overscroll-behavior-y: none; } .errorContainer { background-color: #FFF; color: #0F1419; max-width: 600px; margin: 0 auto; padding: 10%; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; } .errorButton { margin: 3em 0; } .errorButton a { background: #1DA1F2; border-radius: 2.5em; color: white; padding: 1em 2em; text-decoration: none; } .errorButton a:hover, .errorButton a:focus { background: rgb(26, 145, 218); } .errorFooter { color: #657786; font-size: 80%; line-height: 1.5; padding: 1em 0; } .errorFooter a, .errorFooter a:visited { color: #657786; text-decoration: none; padding-right: 1em; } .errorFooter a:hover, .errorFooter a:active { text-decoration: underline; } #placeholder, #react-root { display: none !important; } body { background-color: #FFF !important; }

JavaScript is not available.

We’ve detected that JavaScript is disabled in this browser. Please enable JavaScript or switch to a supported browser to continue using twitter.com. You can see a list of supported browsers in our Help Center.

Terms of Service Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Imprint Ads info © 2023 X Corp.

Conversation

Dr Thomas Smith

#ArcticFires have been burning for 6+ weeks, starting earlier than usual & releasing more CO2 in June/July than any year in the 17-yr record. A crucial question is whether these fires have ignited peat soils. This THREAD takes a closer look. twitter.com/m_parrington/s [1/7]

Quote Tweet

Mark Parrington

Arctic Circle #wildfires have been persistently above 2003-2018 average through July. Latest #Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service GFAS analysis atmosphere.copernicus.eu/charts/cams/fi shows intense fires in Alaska, Sakha Republic & Krasnoyarsk along with many other boreal #forestfires

Show this thread

4:47 PM · Jul 25, 2019

1

Bookmark

Dr Thomas Smith

Peat fires are important because they burn carbon that was sequestered over 1000s of years. Unlike a grass/forest fire, emissions cannot be treated as carbon neutral. Once ignited, peat burns for a long time and is difficult to extinguish. SOURCE: publish.csiro.au/wf/pdf/WF17084 [2/7]

Yuqi and 3 others

1

27

34

Dr Thomas Smith

Thanks to raw fire data from

(red dots = Jun/Jul 2019 fires) and PEATMAP (green shaded areas) (sciencedirect.com/science/articl), we can establish that this year's fires are definitely burning on known peatlands. [3/7]

Mark Parrington and 2 others

1

19

28

Dr Thomas Smith

The question is whether the fires exist only on the surface, or have ignited peat soils. These peatland fires in Eastern Siberia and NE Alaska have been burning for a number of weeks on the same land, spreading slowly - this suggests a deep-seated smouldering peat fire. [4/7]

NASA Earth and Jiren Xu

1

10

17

Dr Thomas Smith

This animation shows a fire in NE Alaska, near Chalkyitsik. The animation spans 4 weeks, from end of June through to 24 July (image is ~250 km wide). The fire spreads slowly and some hotspots have been persistent for the whole period of the fire, suggesting a peat fire. [5/7]

Embedded video

GIF

1

7

13

Dr Thomas Smith

You should notice a brown/yellow tinge to the smoke. This is also indicative of a peat fire [see Tweet 2/7] [6/7]

1

5

14

Dr Thomas Smith

Peat fires are part of a climate system positive feedback loop. Higher Arctic temperatures increase the likelihood of peat ignitions during a fire, as the extra heat dries the (normally moist) peat out. Resultant greenhouse gas emissions will only lead to more heating [7/7]

1

13

24

Dr Thomas Smith

This is a follow-up to an earlier thread:

Quote Tweet

Dr Thomas Smith

These Arctic fires have been burning for over a month now. This thread takes a closer look at what might have caused these fires, what exactly is burning, & why we should be concerned... [

images are from the same location in the Sakha Republic, Russia

, 65–70°N] [THREAD 1/9]

Show this thread

3

7

11

Dr Thomas Smith

Some more animations here of suspected peat fires:

Quote Tweet

Dr Thomas Smith

This thread takes a look at some of the Arctic fires that I suspect have ignited peat soils (according to fire shape, spread, & smoke production). These two major fires [66°N] have burned 400,000 hectares over 20 days (so far), 500 km NW of Yakutsk [image width: 350 km] [1/7]

Show this thread

Embedded video

GIF

2

zoobab "NO Software Patents"