Fires in Siberia, Russia

In mid-July 2016, fires occurred in Siberia, in the tundra-taiga interface of the North West of the region. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on acquired pictures of the smokes on the 19th of July 2016.

According to Bruce Forbes form the University of Lapland “there can be ancient peat deposits near the surface to provide fuel in some places” although the causes of the fire have not been determined yet.

If the fires occurred far from humans, the burning vegetation releases massive amounts of CO2 and could become a threat to the ecosystem in the region.