Effects of recent increase in anomalous fires and smokes at high latitude regions on regional atmosphere

Spatiotemporal patterns and trends of atmospheric aerosols in high latitude region have been analyzed. Aerosol observation data from 2000-2022 acquired from the earth observing satellites including the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), or geostationary satellites such as the Geostationary Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite-2A (GK-2A) . Results showed that Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) over the high latitude region has gradually decreased before 2016. However, AOT has increased significantly over the past 8 years. This increase was clearly shown in North America and North Asia, and was associated with an increase with fire activities. Smoke plumes originated from fire active fires transported eastward with meteorology, but occasionally moved toward the Arctic region. The occurrence of fires and the production and transport of aerosols will be a consequence or factor of the recent rapid climate change.

Acknowledgement: This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2019R1I1A3A01062804).