The atmospheric impact of boreal forest fires in far eastern Siberia on the seasonal variation of carbon monoxide: Observations at Rishiri, A northern remote island in Japan

Abstract

Abstract. Observations of carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone(03) at the surface have been made at Rishiri, a northern remote island in Japan. 0 3 seasonal variation shows a spring maximum and summer minimum, which are typically observed at remote mid-latitude regions in the Northern Hemisphere. The seasonal cycle of CO shows a baseline enhancement and episodic high concentrations during the period from summer to early fall 1998, indicating a strong source of CO nearby. Both Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and Earth Probe Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer satellite images during the same period produce clear pictures illustrating severe forest fire events and widespread smoke plumes in far eastern Siberia. Back trajectory analyses suggest that boreal forest fires in far eastern Siberia had a significant impact on CO observed at the site from summer to early fall 1998.

Mega fire emissions in Siberia: potential supply of bioavailable iron from forests to the ocean

“…Major forest fires have a large impact on atmospheric loadings of carbon monoxide (CO) and aerosols in the Northern Hemisphere (Cahoon et al, 1994;Tanimoto et al, 2000;Kajii et al, 2002;Kasischke and Bruhwiler, 2002). Enhanced CO columns and aerosol optical depths were observed over northeastern Russia in association with large forest fires in the summer of 2002 and over southeastern Russia in association with mega forest fires in the spring of 2003 .…”

Boreal forest fires in 1997 and 1998: a seasonal comparison using transport model simulations and measurement data

“…Taking this pathway, the fire plume also travels over northern Japan, where in 1998 Japanese surface CO measurements showed a maximum difference of about 30 ppb between air masses which have and those which have not passed the 1998 Siberian fires according to trajectory analyses . Additionally, Tanimoto et al (2000) found baseline enhancements and episodic high concentrations of CO at the measurement site of Rishiri, Japan, during the boreal burning season of 1998. To estimate the extent of intercontinental transport of the forest fire emissions, the relative CO tracer amounts remaining close to the source and reaching another continent were calculated by defining three boxes for the latitude band 40 Fig.…”

“…Furthermore, boreal fires are subjected to a strong interannual variability (Amiro et al, 2001). Finally, boreal forest fires are not only a local disturbance factor but, due to atmospheric transport processes, they affect tropospheric chemistry on regional Tanimoto et al, 2000) and even continental and hemispheric scales (Fromm et al, 2000;Wotawa and Trainer, 2000;Forster et al, 2001;Spichtinger et al, 2001;Wotawa et al, 2001). Boreal forest fires occur mainly from May to October (Lavoue et al, 2000) and are most frequent in Canada and Siberia.…”

Tracing the fate of atmospheric nitrate deposited onto a forest ecosystem in Eastern Asia using Δ<sup>17</sup>O

“…Samples of wet deposition were taken at the Rishiri National Acid Rain Monitoring Station (RIO; Tanimoto et al, 2000) located in the south of the island (45 • 7 11 N, 141 • 12 33 E; Fig. 1) at 40 m above sea level using standard methods for evaluating acid deposition in Japan.…”