![]() The maps above show the monthly aerosol levels (left) and chlorophyll anomalies (right) from November 2019 to February 2020. OCCI merges data from the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) on Envisat, Terra MODIS, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), and the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS). The team also examined chlorophyll concentrations recorded by the European Space Agency's Ocean Color Climate Change Initiative. Tang, Cassar, and colleagues found that black carbon emissions emanated mainly from wildfires in southern and eastern Australia and blew out to the broad South Pacific within a few days. The researchers looked specifically at black carbon AOD as a proxy for wildfire aerosols. In the visible spectrum, AOD provides a measure of the amount of desert dust, sea salt, sulfate, organic matter, and black carbon in a column of air. To quantify the aerosols emitted by the fires, the team examined aerosol optical depth (AOD) data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), which is based partly on measurements from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. “The fact that both the fires and the blooms were unprecedented in the satellite record initially gave us an inkling that they might be connected,” Cassar said. ![]() It is important to understand the effects of such fires, not just on local ecosystems but on distant ones as well, noted marine biogeochemist Weiyi Tang of Princeton and biogeochemist Nicolas Cassar of Duke University, lead authors of the study. As global climate warms, such fires are expected to increase in frequency and intensity, releasing more carbon dioxide, which further fuels climate change. The image above, acquired on January 6, 2020, by the Japanese satellite Himawari-8, shows the plume of smoke and ash streaming away from the fires on the southeastern coast of Australia. ![]() Together the surface area of those blooms exceeded the size of Australia. From December 2019 to March 2020, the deposition of aerosols emitted by the fires triggered phytoplankton blooms in the normally iron-limited waters of the South Pacific and Southern Ocean. That smoky summer also affected marine ecosystems thousands of kilometers away, according to new research that combined satellite data and surface measurements. The fires emitted vast amounts of carbon dioxide and lofted smoke plumes to record heights. Started in October 2019 and burning through January 2020, they scorched millions of hectares and killed or displaced an estimated 3 billion animals. Images featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) web site may be copyrighted.The catastrophic wildfires that scorched eucalyptus forests in southern and eastern Australia in the summer of 2019-2020 were unprecedented in their scale and intensity.All materials created by the SOHO probe are copyrighted and require permission for commercial non-educational use.Materials from the Hubble Space Telescope may be copyrighted if they do not explicitly come from the STScI.NASA logos (which include the current "meatball" logo, the old "worm" logo, and the seal) are copyrighted.( NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy). NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". ![]() This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA. The image displays the concentrated development of the urban area.Īn annotated version of the satellite photo the Sydney article previously linked to. This simulated true-colour Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) image shows the Sydney metropolitan area on 12 October 2001 and covers an area of 42 by 33 kilometres. ![]()
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