Species Emitted by Fires
Résumé
Fires play an important role in the global emission budget of greenhouse and reactive gases, as well as particulate matter, in the atmosphere. Emissions from biomass burning are known to be a source of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, and thus directly affect climate. Biomass burning is the main global source of aerosol like black carbon and primary organic aerosol. Several satellite systems have proven effective as fire monitoring tools and provide suitable information required to better understand the temporal and spatial distribution of biomass burning products. Broad-band nadir-viewing instruments can measure the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and, in the case of multiple channels, can also derive the spectral variability of the AOD; these two parameters can help to identify aerosols from biomass burning based on their optical properties. Active fire detection, fire radiative power and other fire detection parameters are provided from space observations by multiple instruments.