Updated information about the wildfires in Greenland

The August 8, 2017 Deimos 2 image above shows one of the two wildfires currently burning in Greenland. When we wrote about the fires on August 7 it was the first time we had covered a fire on the island since we started Wildfire Today in 2008.

After our article was published other organizations also wrote about the fires. Online discussions developed over the last two days have included questions about the fire history of Greenland, and it turns out that no comprehensive reliable data has been unearthed. Researchers looking through satellite data have found historical heat detections by MODIS but many of the individual sensor trips are of low confidence, meaning they could be something other than a wildfire.

It appears that fires have occurred in Greenland, but at very low levels, and sporadically. We are not aware of the reliability of “wildfire CO2 emissions” to indicate the occurrence of wildfires, but the data presented by Mark Parrington (below) looks interesting.

Click once or twice on the images below to see larger versions.

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Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.

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