The European Copernicus air monitoring service has released information that about 400 million tons of carbon dioxide have been released into the atmosphere by the Australian fire. According to foreign media analysis, this figure has exceeded the sum of annual emissions of 116 countries with the lowest carbon dioxide emissions in the world.

In September 2019, fires began to rage in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. To this day, Australia is still fighting this long-standing fire.

As one of the six services of the European earth observation project "Copernicus plan", the Copernicus air monitoring service provides information about air pollution and health, solar energy, greenhouse gases and climate drivers around the world. The service has been closely monitoring the intensity of the fire and predicting the transmission of air pollutants from the fire.

Monitoring information shows that for most of last December, Australia's fires were many times worse than the previous 16 year average. By January 3, 2020, nearly 6 million hectares of land in Australia had been devastated by the fire, larger than Croatia.

There are generally not many fires in eastern Australia, which are now fighting the most extreme. On December 30 last year, a fire broke out in Victoria, Australia. Now nearly one million hectares of land have been burned. The neighboring state of South Wales has been on fire since early September. On January 2 this year, South Wales announced a week-long state of emergency in response to the increased risk of high temperatures and strong winds.

In addition to destroying land and infrastructure, wildfires also have a huge impact on air quality.

It is estimated that during January 4-5 this year, the smog generated by the fire covers an area of about 20 million square kilometers, enough to cover Russia as a whole, plus one third of Europe. On January 2, the highest concentration of carbon monoxide in the world detected by the Copernicus atmospheric monitoring service appeared in the once "pure" South Pacific region. The carbon monoxide came from the fire in Australia.

In addition to Australia, the air pollution caused by the fire is seriously affecting New Zealand. According to the forecast, most of the smoke is currently spreading in northern New Zealand, and some will continue to affect New Zealand in the next few days.

The Copernicus atmospheric monitoring service analyzed the cause of the fire and concluded that the rapid spread of the current Australian fire is related to dry and hot environmental conditions.

According to analysis, in September 2019, the stratosphere over Antarctica suddenly heats up rarely, and the performance of the ozone hole is very abnormal. The weather event also brought dry, hot winds across Australia, creating the best conditions for wildfires to spread. In addition, throughout 2019, rainfall in most parts of Australia was below average, which resulted in very dry soil and vegetation.

Source: China Environm News