The overall goal of this IDS project is to use information derived from satellite observations available through NASA's Earth Science Enterprise to reduce the uncertainties in the constraints on fire carbon emissions estimates for the boreal forest. The hypothesis that we will test in this interdisciplinary science investigation is that the interannual variations in the fire regime in the boreal forest are responsible for a significant portion of the interannual variations in the seasonal amplitude of the atmospheric CO2 record at high northern latitudes.By quantifying the biomass burning component of the seasonal amplitude, we can begin to distinguish among different mechanisms, including changes in the length of the growing season, the effects of interannual variability in snow and ice cover, and the difect effects of temperature and soil moisture on ecosystem carbon fluxes. The goals of this project will be achieved by using satellite imagery to provide three important pieces of information:
- we will analyze the AVHRR data collected over Russia from 1978 to 1999 and combine this information with fire boundaries produced by MODIS and fire records from North America to produce a global boreal forest fire boundary map for the time periods of 1978 to 2002
- we will further calibrate the areal extent of fires in the boreal forest by using finer resolution Landsat imagery to estimate total area in selected regions
- we will use information derived from Landsat imagery to estimate patterns of biomass burning/fire severity in different boreal forest regions
This information will be used to derive estimates of direct carbon release from firest in the boreal forest. The output from this project will be spatial/temporal estimates of CO2 emissions, plus emissions of other carbon-based greenhouse gases (methane, carbon monoxide). We will compare estimates of CO2 emissions from fires to the record of atmospheric variations in CO2 concentrations derived from surface flask data at high northern latitude stations to determine how much the variation in the atmospheric record is due to emissions from fire. We will also use outputs from the CASA model to compare the variations observed from fires to those predicted for biological processes, such as photosynthesis, plant respiration, and heterotrophic respiration.
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