The 2019 biomass burning season in South America: climate diagnostics, fire monitoring and air quality forecasting

The biomass burning season in South America is mainly concentrated between July and October, period characterized by dry conditions associated with the decay phase of the South American monsoon system. The dry season in South America starts at the end of March and beginning of April when the maximum convection starts its shift to northward South America. The climatological dryness condition over central South America during July to October increases the occurrence of vegetation fires. The number of active fires detected by the AQUA satellite from 1998 to November 2019 in South America indicate fires abruptly increase from July to August, reaching a peak in September. Fires convert vegetation used as fuel into a series of combustion products that can remain in burned places or can be transported to other places by the atmospheric circulation. The 2019 dry season in South America was characterized by an abnormal high occurrence of intense and persistent fire episodes that injected tons of aerosols into the atmosphere. The present study aims to perform a comparative assessment of the four last South American biomass burning seasons. To compare the 2019 biomass burning season with 2016, 2017 and 2018 season, in this paper it is presented the fire active data compiled by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) for the periods of analysis, the climatological aspects associated with each season and finally the validation of the operational integrated meteorology/air quality forecasting system Brazilian developments on the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System of the Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies (CPTEC/INPE), for the considered periods.