The reality of science, statistics, and satellites is that a deep understanding of the causes, effects, and severity of a fire season takes time.
In August 2019, fires in the Amazon dominated the news, inspiring concern from presidents and prime ministers to pop stars to the Pope. As smoke darkened South American skies, people wondered: What caused the fires? Were they unusual? What did they mean for the rainforest?
Scientists at NASA and other international agencies worked overtime to answer such questions, using the satellite and ground-based information available in real-time. But the reality of science, statistics, and satellite observations is that understanding the causes and effects of a fire season takes time. Six months later, some of the answers are coming into clearer focus.
“There is no question the 2019 Amazon fires were unusual, but they were unusual in specific areas and ways,” said Douglas Morton, chief of the Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Fortunately, we did not see forest fires burning uncontrolled through the rainforest like we have during past drought years. What we did see was a worrisome increase in deforestation fires in certain parts of Brazil.”
Despite the nasty start to the 2019 fire season, year-end tallies of fire hot spot detections and burned area did not break all-time records. “The real nightmare scenario would have been deforestation fires at the level we had in 2019 during a drought year,” said Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). “You would have seen fires spreading into the rainforest and burning unchecked for months.”
Continue reading at NASA Earth Observatory
Image via NASA Earth Observatory
