Rapid summer Russian Arctic sea-ice loss enhances the risk of recent Eastern Siberian wildfires

In recent decades boreal wildfires have occurred frequently over eastern Siberia, leading to increased emissions of carbon dioxide and pollutants. However, it is unclear what factors have contributed to recent increases in these wildfires. Here, using the data we show that background eastern Siberia...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Communications
Main Authors: Luo, Binhe, Luo, Dehai, Dai, Aiguo, Xiao, Cunde, Simmonds, Ian, Hanna, Edward, Overland, James, Shi, Jiaqi, Chen, Xiaodan, Yao, Yao, Duan, Wansuo, Liu, Yimin, Zhang, Qiang, Xu, Xiyan, Diao, Yina, Jiang, Zhina, Gong, Tingting
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: NATURE PORTFOLIO 2024
Subjects:
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Multidisciplinary Sciences
ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATE-CHANGE
VAPOR-PRESSURE DEFICIT
INTERNAL VARIABILITY
ATMOSPHERIC BLOCKING
BOREAL FIRES
EMISSIONS
MECHANISMS
DYNAMICS
INCREASE
Climate change
Sea ice
Siberia
Online Access:http://ir.qdio.ac.cn/handle/337002/185422
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49677-0
Description
Summary:In recent decades boreal wildfires have occurred frequently over eastern Siberia, leading to increased emissions of carbon dioxide and pollutants. However, it is unclear what factors have contributed to recent increases in these wildfires. Here, using the data we show that background eastern Siberian Arctic warming (BAW) related to summer Russian Arctic sea-ice decline accounts for similar to 79% of the increase in summer vapor pressure deficit (VPD) that controls wildfires over eastern Siberia over 2004-2021 with the remaining similar to 21% related to internal atmospheric variability associated with changes in Siberian blocking events. We further demonstrate that Siberian blocking events are occurring at higher latitudes, are more persistent and have larger zonal scales and slower decay due to smaller meridional potential vorticity gradients caused by stronger BAW under lower sea-ice. These changes lead to more persistent, widespread and intense high-latitude warming and VPD, thus contributing to recent increases in eastern Siberian high-latitude wildfires.

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