Daily forecasts of fire smoke can now be accessed online
Photo: Shutterstock.Europe is warming almost twice as fast as the rest of the world and is already experiencing its third heat wave this year. Heatwaves increase the risk of wildfires, and keeping them under control requires ever more resources. However, smoke can travel far from the burning areas and degrade air quality over wide regions. There is evidence that fire smoke is more toxic than many other pollutants, including urban smoke. Nevertheless, there has not been a dedicated operational service for monitoring and forecasting fire smoke.
This need is addressed by the new fire smoke forecast, freely available at https://vfsp-wase.fmi.fi.
The forecast has been developed as part of the Atmosphere and Climate Competence Centre (ACCC) proof-of-concept project Vegetation Fires and Smoke Pollution Warning and Advisory System for Europe (VFSP-WASE). It is based on the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s IS4FIRES fire information system and the SILAM atmospheric composition model.
“We have been working on fire and fire smoke information for more than a decade,” says Research Professor Mikhail Sofiev, coordinator of the VFSP-WASE. “It took time to prepare all the elements of the system: collecting fire information from global satellite observations, converting the fire data into smoke emissions, and finally predicting the smoke dispersion at global and European scales.”
Extending coverage to predict smoke across Eurasia
“Due to a lack of local information on Siberian fires and their importance for Europe, the newly released forecast also covers Eurasia. This allows us to predict situations when smoke from Siberia or Central Russia affects Europe. In cooperation with European partners, we are planning extensions of the system functionality and the information available there,” Mikhail Sofiev adds.
The VFSP-WASE follows the guidelines of the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Global Atmospheric Watch programme. The global VFSP-WAS network consists of regional centres, and VFSP-WASE is preparing to become the European centre, alongside the already operational centres in North America and Singapore.
Further information
Research Professor Mikhail Sofiev, Finnish Meteorological Institute
Email address follow the format firstname.lastname@fmi.fi.