Vol. 21, issue 06, article # 9

Abstract:

Field experiments with forest fires have shown that the amount of aerosol matter, emitted into the atmosphere during fires is 0.2-1 t/ha. This represents 1-7% of the total biomass (15-25 t/ha) burned out during a typical forest fire in Siberia. It has been found that 3-10 million tones of aerosol materials are emitted into the atmosphere from forest fires. The analysis of chemical composition of the sampled smoke matter has indicated that 3-15% of their masses are of mineral (soil) origin (Na, Si, Ca, K, Fe, Zn, etc.). The carbonic aerosols appeared due to incomplete burning out of the biomass range from 60-90% of the total emitted aerosol. The fraction of aerosols-containing elemental carbon (graphite, soot, black carbon) is 7-15%. More than 80% of smoke emission consists of aerosol particles with sizes less than 3 µm.