[1] Estimates of wildfire aerosol and trace gas emissions are most commonly derived from assessments of biomass combusted. The radiative component of the energy liberated by burning fuel can be measured by remote sensing, and spaceborne fire radiative energy (FRE) measures can potentially provide detailed information on the amount and rate of biomass consumption over large areas. To implement the approach, spaceborne sensors must be able to derive fire radiative power (FRP) estimates from subpixel fires using observations in just one or two spectral channels, and calibration relationships between radiated energy and fuel consumption must be developed and validated. This paper presents results from a sensitivity analysis and from experimental fires conducted to investigate these issues. Within their methodological limits, the experimental work shows that FRP assessments made via independent hyperspectral and MIR radiance approaches in fact show good agreement, and fires are calculated to radiate 14 ± 3% [mean ± 1S.D.] of their theoretically available heat yield in a form capable of direct assessment by a nadir-viewing MIR imager. The relationship between FRE and fuel mass combusted is linear and highly significant (r 2 = 0.98, n = 29, p < 0.0001), and FRP is well related to combustion rate (r 2 = 0.90, n = 178, p < 0.0001), though radiation from the still-hot fuel bed can sometimes contribute significant FRP from areas where combustion has ceased. We conclude that FRE assessment offers a powerful tool for supplementing existing burned-area based fuel consumption measures, and thus shows significant promise for enhancing pyrogenic trace gas and aerosol emissions estimates.Citation: Wooster, M. J., G. Roberts, G. L. W. Perry, and Y. J. Kaufman (2005), Retrieval of biomass combustion rates and totals from fire radiative power observations: FRP derivation and calibration relationships between biomass consumption and fire radiative energy release,

No abstract

In September and October 2015 widespread forest and peatland fires burned over large parts of maritime southeast Asia, most notably Indonesia, releasing large amounts of terrestrially-stored carbon into the atmosphere, primarily in the form of CO2, CO and CH4. With a mean emission rate of 11.3 Tg CO2 per day during Sept-Oct 2015, emissions from these fires exceeded the fossil fuel CO2 release rate of the European Union (EU28) (8.9 Tg CO2 per day). Although seasonal fires are a frequent occurrence in the human modified landscapes found in Indonesia, the extent of the 2015 fires was greatly inflated by an extended drought period associated with a strong El Niño. We estimate carbon emissions from the 2015 fires to be the largest seen in maritime southeast Asia since those associated with the record breaking El Niño of 1997. Compared to that event, a much better constrained regional total carbon emission estimate can be made for the 2015 fires through the use of present-day satellite observations of the fire’s radiative power output and atmospheric CO concentrations, processed using the modelling and assimilation framework of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and combined with unique in situ smoke measurements made on Kalimantan.