Long-Term Satellite Monitoring of Various Types of Wildfires and Wildfire-Induced Emissions of Climate-Active Gases and Aerosols in Russia and in Its Large Regions

Abstract—Based on the results of satellite monitoring, the various types of wildfires that have occurred in four types of vegetation (forests, meadows and steppes, shrubs, and agricultural lands) throughout the Russian Federation and its individual large regions during fire-hazard periods (April to October) from 2001 to 2023 are studied. Using the MCD64A1 information product, the areas of wildfires are determined and it is shown that their largest total values for the entire territory of Russia in the studied period of time were recorded in 2002, 2003, and 2008, and over the past decade their maximum value was recorded in 2021 and amounted to 117 000 km2. At the same time, the area of forest fires alone that occurred in 2021 amounted to a record value over the past decade (91 800 km2). Annual volumes of emissions of carbon-containing climate-active gases CO2, CO, and CH4 and PM2.5 fine aerosols caused by fires are estimated. A comparison of the estimates of fire areas and the emissions of climate-active gases caused by them is carried out with the results of other studies. A trend towards a decrease in the total annual values of burned areas with a gradual increase in the average annual radiative power of all types of fires (FRP) that occurred in Russia over the studied 23-year period is revealed. An assumption is made that this is due to the improvement of methods for early detection of fire sources and fire extinguishing methods, which led to a reduction in agricultural burning and meadow–steppe fires, primarily in European Russia (ER). At the same time, the increase in the annual average values of radiative power of natural fires is probably associated with climate change trends over the vast territory of Russia, manifested in an increase in temperature, as well as the number and duration of drier periods.