Post by Andrei Tchentchik on Mar 1, 2020 14:07:02 GMT 2
(.#A.037).- A world on fire: NASA unveils a global map of fires.
A world on fire: NASA unveils a global map of fires.
Futura Planet
Reporter: Céline Deluzarche
Posted on 28/08/2018
Thousands of fires are permanently ravaging our planet. Fires that spare no country, rich or poor, and are often due to deleterious practices.
The thousands of red dots displayed on this map each represent a fire in progress. This image, captured on August 22, 2018 by the satellites of the mission Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is based on the soil temperature recorded thanks to the infrared radiation.
The Worldview mission shows the fires in the world in real time. © Nasa, EOSDIS
Contrary to what one might think, most of these impressive fires are voluntary. In Africa, which clearly appears in red on the map, farmers deliberately light them to get rid of the vegetation to clear the ground for new crops or pastures. Unfortunately, if fires favor the fertilization of the soil, they seriously degrade the quality of the air.
In Brazil, thousands of hectares of Amazon rainforests are smoked every year to make way for cattle ranching and mining. Fires that often turn into disaster due to lack of control and are responsible for a third of 4.5 million hectares of Amazon rainforests gone up in 2017 in Brazil, according to Global Forest Watch. This practice adds to that of landfill fires, in a country where waste management is failing.
Drought, heat, poor forest management, urban sprawl : the explosive thingytail.
In other parts of the world, red areas are mainly due to forest fires. Chile, which has been experiencing persistent drought and high temperatures for several years, is particularly affected. The fires are aggravated by the fact that many native species have been replaced by eucalyptus and pine for wood and paper production. However, their leaves and spines contain highly flammable resins, which spread the flames once they fall to the ground, as revealed by a study published in PLoS One on August 22nd. Australia is also the victim of serious fires, favored by urban expansion, while we are there in the middle of winter.
World mapping of real-time fires using satellites.
ESA article published on 03/06/2006
For the past ten years, ESA satellites have continuously monitored fires devastating the earth's surface. These data are used to create global fire maps and users can now access them online - virtually in real time - through ESA's Global ATSR Fire Atlas.
This is the first global atlas listing events over several years. It provides data about six hours after acquisition and is an important scientific resource as fires play an important role in changing the environment.
Map of fires recorded in 2005 on the surface of the globe (credit: ESA)
"The atlas is an excellent resource giving a new insight into the Earth, which was previously unobtainable, and will certainly allow environmentalists to address recent and old questions about the role of fire in restructuring the natural world," he said. said Matt Fitzpatrick of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee.
More than 50 million hectares of forest burn annually, and these fires have a significant impact on global air pollution, with the burning of biomass contributing to global greenhouse gas balances such as carbon dioxide. Over the past decade, researchers have realized that it is important to monitor this cycle. In fact, data from the World Atlas of Fire are generally consulted in the context of atmospheric studies.
The quantification of fires is of great importance for current studies on climate change. For example, in 1998, El Niño helped spread fires on the island of Borneo, which released up to 2.5 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, the equivalent of all carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Europe during the same year.
More than 200 registered users have access to the World Atlas of Fire. The data are used in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Africa and Australia for studies on atmospheric chemistry, land use changes, study of global ecological change, prevention and fire management as well as meteorology.
Harvard University, the University of Toronto, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and NASA, among others, have used these data in published studies. To date, more than 100 scientific papers based on data from the World Atlas of Fire have been published.
In addition to the maps, the atlas shows the time, date, longitude and latitude of the hot spots. The database covers years between 1995 and today, but full annual coverage only started in 1997.
The atlas data is based on the results of the ATSR and ATSR, which were launched on ESA ERS-2 satellites in 1995, and Envisat in 2002.
These twin radiometers act as sky thermometers by measuring the thermal infrared radiation to take the surface temperature of the earth. Fire detection is better at night, when the surrounding lands are cooler. Temperatures above 312º K (38.85ºC) are classified as fires by ATSR / AATSR, which are able to detect as low a fire as industrial field torches because of their high temperatures.
F I N .
A world on fire: NASA unveils a global map of fires.
Futura Planet
Reporter: Céline Deluzarche
Posted on 28/08/2018
Thousands of fires are permanently ravaging our planet. Fires that spare no country, rich or poor, and are often due to deleterious practices.
The thousands of red dots displayed on this map each represent a fire in progress. This image, captured on August 22, 2018 by the satellites of the mission Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is based on the soil temperature recorded thanks to the infrared radiation.
The Worldview mission shows the fires in the world in real time. © Nasa, EOSDIS
Contrary to what one might think, most of these impressive fires are voluntary. In Africa, which clearly appears in red on the map, farmers deliberately light them to get rid of the vegetation to clear the ground for new crops or pastures. Unfortunately, if fires favor the fertilization of the soil, they seriously degrade the quality of the air.
In Brazil, thousands of hectares of Amazon rainforests are smoked every year to make way for cattle ranching and mining. Fires that often turn into disaster due to lack of control and are responsible for a third of 4.5 million hectares of Amazon rainforests gone up in 2017 in Brazil, according to Global Forest Watch. This practice adds to that of landfill fires, in a country where waste management is failing.
Drought, heat, poor forest management, urban sprawl : the explosive thingytail.
In other parts of the world, red areas are mainly due to forest fires. Chile, which has been experiencing persistent drought and high temperatures for several years, is particularly affected. The fires are aggravated by the fact that many native species have been replaced by eucalyptus and pine for wood and paper production. However, their leaves and spines contain highly flammable resins, which spread the flames once they fall to the ground, as revealed by a study published in PLoS One on August 22nd. Australia is also the victim of serious fires, favored by urban expansion, while we are there in the middle of winter.
World mapping of real-time fires using satellites.
ESA article published on 03/06/2006
For the past ten years, ESA satellites have continuously monitored fires devastating the earth's surface. These data are used to create global fire maps and users can now access them online - virtually in real time - through ESA's Global ATSR Fire Atlas.
This is the first global atlas listing events over several years. It provides data about six hours after acquisition and is an important scientific resource as fires play an important role in changing the environment.
Map of fires recorded in 2005 on the surface of the globe (credit: ESA)
"The atlas is an excellent resource giving a new insight into the Earth, which was previously unobtainable, and will certainly allow environmentalists to address recent and old questions about the role of fire in restructuring the natural world," he said. said Matt Fitzpatrick of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee.
More than 50 million hectares of forest burn annually, and these fires have a significant impact on global air pollution, with the burning of biomass contributing to global greenhouse gas balances such as carbon dioxide. Over the past decade, researchers have realized that it is important to monitor this cycle. In fact, data from the World Atlas of Fire are generally consulted in the context of atmospheric studies.
The quantification of fires is of great importance for current studies on climate change. For example, in 1998, El Niño helped spread fires on the island of Borneo, which released up to 2.5 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, the equivalent of all carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Europe during the same year.
More than 200 registered users have access to the World Atlas of Fire. The data are used in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Africa and Australia for studies on atmospheric chemistry, land use changes, study of global ecological change, prevention and fire management as well as meteorology.
Harvard University, the University of Toronto, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and NASA, among others, have used these data in published studies. To date, more than 100 scientific papers based on data from the World Atlas of Fire have been published.
In addition to the maps, the atlas shows the time, date, longitude and latitude of the hot spots. The database covers years between 1995 and today, but full annual coverage only started in 1997.
The atlas data is based on the results of the ATSR and ATSR, which were launched on ESA ERS-2 satellites in 1995, and Envisat in 2002.
These twin radiometers act as sky thermometers by measuring the thermal infrared radiation to take the surface temperature of the earth. Fire detection is better at night, when the surrounding lands are cooler. Temperatures above 312º K (38.85ºC) are classified as fires by ATSR / AATSR, which are able to detect as low a fire as industrial field torches because of their high temperatures.
F I N .
