Home Geospatial Applications Miscellaneous Envisat monitors transcontinental wildfire emissions

Envisat monitors transcontinental wildfire emissions

Australia, 8 May 2007: Using data from the SCIAMACHY instrument aboard ESA’s environmental satellite Envisat, scientists have determined that the carbon monoxide hovering over Australia during the wildfire season largely originated from South American wildfires some 13 000 kilometres away.




“SCIAMACHY allows us to map the sources of carbon monoxide and see where they are blown to,” Gloudemans added. “We did this for all of the continents in the southern hemisphere, South America, Australia and Southern Africa for the years 2003 and 2004 and found surprising results.


Forest fires in South America produced much more carbon monoxide in 2004 than in 2003, Gloudemans explained. “These levels correlated to the amounts found over Australia for the same periods, confirming that the carbon monoxide levels over Australia are severely influenced by South American forest fires.”