Wildfires of the Arctic zone of Siberia under the conditions of climatic changes of the XX – early XXI centuries

Abstract

The dynamics of vegetation fires on the territory of the Arctic zone of Siberia (64–74°N, 60–150°E) was studied under the conditions of observed climatic changes at the turn of the XX – beginning of the XXI centuries. In the study area, four sectors with an interval of 20° were considered on the longitude gradient, so that the longitude boundaries for each sector coincided with the boundaries of the basins of the large rivers Ob, Yenisei (with Khatanga), Lena, Yana, Indigirka, and Kolyma. As the initial data, the V. N. Sukachev Institute of Forest, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences fire bank was used, collected from satellite monitoring materials in 1996–2022, as well as materials of reanalysis of meteorological information on the territory of Siberia from open catalogs for more than 100-year observation interval 1900–2022. The paper analyzes the spatio-temporal variation of the main meteorological characteristics, including air temperature, precipitation, lightning activity with details on the longitude gradient. Additionally, the trends of changes in the level of heat and moisture supply and the duration of the fire hazardous period have been restored. The measure of the relative anomalies of the main meteorological factors in the time interval 2000–2022 in comparison with the average statistical norms of the 100-year period and the relative rate of their change in the modern climate are revealed. Geospatial interpolation was performed by means of geoinformation systems. Qualitatively and quantitatively, the level of connection between the burning of the Siberian Arctic in the period 2002–2022 has been established. depending on the off-season variations of heat and moisture availability.

Keywords

• vegetation fires
• satellite data
• meteorological information
• spatial interpolation
• hydrothermal coefficient
• trends