KEY IN SITU MEASURES OF EL NINO EXACERBATED FIRES IN INDONESIA

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Biomass burning dramatically affects atmospheric composition and climate. Southeast Asia is a region where prior forest clearance, drainage of peatlands for agriculture, and the ongoing use of fire to 'manage' land annually leads to quite extensive emissions to the atmosphere (van der Werf et al., 2009). Occasionally however, El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate anomalies lead to regional drought that massively exacerbates this annual activity, resulting in much more extensive, more strongly burning fires that include areas of forest and peat normally too moist to burn. There is a strong ENSO event occurring currently (Oct 2015) and this has lead to extensive and unusually severe fire activity in Berbak National Park (Sumatra) where we are working in collaboration with Zoological Society of London and with local Indonesian partners, supported by an Indonesian Government research permit. This allows us access to measure the unique activity now occurring, in order get a far better understanding of the greenhouse gas emissions from this unique fire activity, which is hugely magnified compared to "normal" years. Under the Urgency Funding we propose to undertake an aerial survey and in situ measurement campaign in order to collect the data needed for these calculations.