Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features a large fire burning in the Abyysky District, located in the Sakha region of northeastern Siberia. The image was captured on July 10, 2024 by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8.

“The fire burned along the Khatyngnakh River in a remote area south of National Park Kytalyk, a UNESCO world heritage site,” said NASA.

“Burned areas appear brown. Darker green areas are forested and likely include dwarf larch and birch. Tundra grasses, mosses, and lichen are dominant in the lighter green areas.”

Dozens of fires in Siberia 

In a separate satellite image captured on July 15, several large fires were visible burning in the same region.

By July 18, there were 69 fires burning across 276,983 hectares in Sakha, according to Russia’s Federal Forestry Agency. 

“More than 2,000 people were in the region, including hundreds of paratroopers providing firefighting assistance. Sakha is one of nine areas in Russia that have declared a state of emergency due to fires,” said NASA.

Fires cut off communities in Sakha

The region is mostly populated by the communities of Eveny, Evenki, and Sakha, Indigenous peoples who have lived in the region for hundreds of years, noted NASA. 

Stanislav Saas Ksenofontov is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Northern Iowa who studies how climate change is affecting Indigenous communities in the Siberian Arctic. 

Ksenofontov described the Sakha communities as small, dispersed, sometimes semi-nomadic groups with traditional activities such as fishing, hunting, foraging, and reindeer herding.

“Devasting fires like this can cut off communities, damage hunting grounds and berry-picking areas, and disrupt reindeer migration routes.”

Increasing fire activity in Siberia

The Arctic lowlands of the Russian Far East are typically a frigid landscape of permafrost and peat, said NASA, but it’s also increasingly becoming a region that is prone to wildfires. 

Kevin Smith is a U.S. Forest Service plant physiologist who co-authored a 2022 analysis of wildland fire activity in the Siberian Arctic. 

Smith pointed out that most fires in this region are ignited by dry lightning. “Fires are a natural part of boreal and high Arctic landscapes in Sakha and the broader Siberian Arctic.”

“However, the frequency, severity, and area encompassed by current wildfire conditions are truly striking.”

Smith and his colleagues focused a study on two decades of fire detections captured by MODIS sensors.

The team found a three-fold increase in the number of fires and more than a doubling in the total area burned between 2000-2010 and 2010-2020. The biggest changes had occurred in the western and central regions of Siberia.

Carbon emissions from Arctic fires

Mark Parrington is an atmospheric scientist with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). According to his data,  carbon emissions from fires within the Arctic Circle have been much higher so far in June and July 2024 than during this period over the past few decades.

While Arctic fires result in an immediate release of carbon into the atmosphere, determining the long-term effects of Arctic fires on the carbon cycle can be challenging due to the complexities of the ecosystem’s response. 

Smith noted that tundra fires can disturb soils in ways that make it easier for trees to colonize areas that had previously been dominated by grasses and mosses – a process that draws boreal forests northward and can result in increased carbon storage.

“On the other hand, climate and associated vegetation shifts can result in whole new regimes that reduce the natural storage of carbon by peat bogs and lead to increases in the release of methane, a strong greenhouse gas,” said Smith. 

“To truly understand the ecological consequences of Arctic fires like these, it’s essential that we track fire activity and ecosystem responses with satellites but also that we follow up with on-the-ground research to better understand the implications.”

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory 

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