The new study looked at the total power emitted by clusters of fire events, defined as fires burning at the same time in proximity, or in the same spot, at multiple times in a single day. The researchers analyzed 21 years of data collected by two NASA satellites between January 2003 and November 2023 to quantify how fire activity has changed over time.
They identified 2,913 extreme events out of more than 30 million fires across the world. Such extreme fire events were also defined by the vast amount of smoke they emitted, their high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, which can further accelerate global warming, and the fire’s ecological, social, and economic effects.
Austyn Gaffney
Read full article by Austyn Gaffney in The New York Times
