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More Methane is released from wildfires than previously thought, and it is not in climate models. [1]
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Date: 2023-04-20
Intense wildfires are generating clouds which release lightning strikes, but no rain. Nasa describes it as the “fire-breathing dragon of clouds”.
Yet another study is highlighting methane release increases in the atmosphere. One source is wildfire research by the University of California Riverside; the study focused on California.
The phenomenon is likely replicated over the earth as rapid rainfall disruption, drought, and heat pour into the atmosphere through forest, peat, grass, and brush fires.
Francesca Hopkins researched Sequoia Lightning Fire Complex gas and debris from 40 miles away, and she and her co-authors' research were published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.
“The plume, or atmospheric column, is like a mixed signal of the whole fire, capturing the action as well as the smoldering phases. That makes these measurements unique.”
From the UC presser:
Using a new detection method, UC Riverside scientists found a massive amount of methane, a super-potent greenhouse gas, coming from wildfires — a source not currently being accounted for by state air quality managers. Methane warms the planet 86 times more powerfully than carbon dioxide over the course of 20 years, and it will be difficult for the state to reach its required cleaner air and climate goals without accounting for this source, the researchers said. Wildfires emitting methane is not new. But the amount of methane from the top 20 fires in 2020 was more than seven times the average from wildfires in the previous 19 years, according to the new UCR study. “Fires are getting bigger and more intense, and correspondingly, more emissions are coming from them,” said UCR environmental sciences professor and study co-author Francesca Hopkins. “The fires in 2020 emitted what would have been 14 percent of the state’s methane budget if it was being tracked.” The state does not track natural sources of methane, like those that come from wildfires. But for 2020, wildfires would have been the third biggest source of methane in the state. “Typically, these sources have been hard to measure, and it’s questionable whether they’re under our control. But we have to try,” Hopkins said. “They’re offsetting what we’re trying to reduce.”
Flying blind is so much fun; adaption will be easy as can be this summer.
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