ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2007) — Large-scale fires in a western or southeastern state can pump as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in a few weeks as the state’s entire motor vehicle traffic does in a year, according to newly published research by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The authors of a recent article*, Christine Wiedinmyer of NCAR and Jason Neff of the University of Colorado, used satellite observations of fires and a new computer model, developed by Wiedinmyer, that estimates carbon dioxide emissions based on the mass of vegetation burned. They caution that their estimates have a margin of error of about 50 percent, both because of inexact data about the extent of fires and varying estimates of the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by different types of blazes.
If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds
BlogoSquare