Release and dispersion of vegetation and peat fire emissions in the atmosphere over Indonesia 1997/1998

[摘要] Smoke-haze episodes caused by vegetation and peat fires affect parts ofIndonesia every year with significant impacts on human health and climate.Particularly fires in degenerated peat areas release huge amounts of tracegases, e.g. CO₂, CO and CH₄, and particles into the atmosphere, exceeding by far the emissions perunit area from fires in surface vegetation. However, only limitedinformation is available about the current distribution of pristine anddegenerated peat areas in Indonesia, their depth, drainage condition andmodification by fire. Particularly during the strong El Niño event in 1997/1998a huge uncertainty exists about the contribution of Indonesian peat fire emissions tothe measured increase of atmospheric CO₂, as the published estimates of the peatarea burned differ considerably. In this paper we study the contribution of peat fireemissions in Indonesia during the El Niño event 1997/1998. Aregional three-dimensional atmosphere-chemistry model is applied overIndonesia using two emission estimates. These vegetation and peat fire emissioninventories for Indonesia are set up in 0.5° resolution in weekly intervals and differ only in the size of thefire affected peat areas. We evaluate simulated rainfall and particleconcentrations by comparison with observations to draw conclusions on thetotal carbon emissions released from the vegetation and peat fires in Indonesia in 1997/1998.

[学科分类] 大气科学