NASA maps carbon monoxide from the Amazonian fires in Brazil

[Humza]

In context: Often called the "planet's lungs," the Amazon rainforest has been subject to a series of devastating fires that the National Institute for Space Research says amounts to more than 75,000 incidents this year alone. Many are calling these fires a deliberate act on the part of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who's been accused of clearing the tropical land for agricultural use while he blames non-government groups, looking to draw criticism away from his government. Facing global mounting pressure, President Bolsonaro on Friday deployed troops and warplanes to handle the emergency, which also came under discussion at the ongoing 45th G7 Summit in France.

Amidst the blazing fires in the world's largest tropical forest, NASA used its Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard the Aqua satellite to show the movement and levels of carbon monoxide high in the atmosphere.

Mapped over a two-week period (August 8-22) from an altitude of 18,000 ft (5,500 meters), the time series generated from the received data shows the expanding plume in the northwest Amazon region drifting towards more concentrated plumes in the southeastern part of Brazil.

"Each "day" in the series is made by averaging three days' worth of measurements, a technique used to eliminate data gaps. Green indicates concentrations of carbon monoxide at approximately 100 parts per billion by volume (ppbv); yellow, at about 120 ppbv; and dark red, at about 160 ppbv. Local values can be significantly higher," says NASA.

The parts per billion by volume (ppbv) unit used to describe concentrations of a contaminant is referred to as the number of units of mass of a contaminant (carbon monoxide in this case) per 1000 million units of total mass (of air in this case).

NASA further observes that a pollutant like carbon monoxide, which contributes to climate change and air pollution, can travel large distances and remain in the atmosphere for about a month. Although the gas mapped in the current images is at a higher altitude, strong winds can bring it downward, significantly affecting the quality of air we breathe.

Al Jazeera notes that as of Sunday, President Jair Bolsonaor authorized military operations in seven states to fight these fires as leaders of the G7 Summit nations expressed their grave concern over the matter, with French President Emmanuel Macron hinting towards finalizing a deal to provide "technical and financial help" by the seven nations.

Main Image Credit: Greenpeace, Earth Time series Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/81600-nasa-maps-carbon-monoxide-amazonian-fires-brazil.html

 

[Uncle Al]

It occurs to me that there are more than a few "situations" going on around the world that require a much more clear thinking approach rather than a political one. ANYTHING that involves the safety of the planet (proven, not opinionated) should be left to a larger body such as NATO or similar sized body and in those cases, it should be decisions based upon their scientific bodes, not the political ones.
It's certainly one thing for one or more countries to go to war or have trade disputes, but when the outcome can most certainly result in mass extinctions, especially humans, we need more clear thinking, logical, calculating minds at work.

 

[RaXoR]

Well, we're gonna die because of greedy *******s. I don't understand how people can be so short sighted and see that this will hurt humanity in the long run only for a short term gain to their bottom line. Life>money.

 

[Trillionsin]

Well, we're gonna die because of greedy *******s. I don't understand how people can be so short sighted and see that this will hurt humanity in the long run only for a short term gain to their bottom line. Life>money.

Just reverse that and you'll understand, example; money>life
Because he won't be alive to care. He must not have kids or family, or has just been that consumed with greed. (assuming the article is accurate)

I think you understand it just fine.

 

[Adi6293]

Apparently there is oil under that forest......

 

[Catweazle]

The rainforest was too important to all of us to belong to a single country. It should have been made a neutral territory belonging to the entire world and protected from being cut down, bulldozed and burned.

 

[Danster1616]

A time for Acid rain and to buy Air purifiers.

 

[Markoni35]

This is making an elephant out of a mouse. Stop panicking! It's just dirty propaganda.

Fires in forests have been happening since the first forest appeared. Billions of years ago. Fires are actually a good way of cleansing the terrain of old plants, to give an opportunity to young ones to thrive on the older generation ashes.

As soon as the grass starts growing on that ashes (in 10 days) it will start producing the same amount of oxygen as the forest did. Because only the surface area counts. And entire surface area will be soon covered by grass and bushes.

Regarding the CO2 emissions, as soon as those plants start growing, they're gonna need all that CO2 back, to build their trunks and branches. This is just a natural fluctuation (even if the forest were put on fire on purpose). Everything is returning back to normal.

God it's funny to see all of those climate alarmists jumping on every propaganda attempt launched by mainstream media. You should be worried about much more dangerous stuff, such as chemicals in your clothing, food and drinks. They are affecting your directly, right now. Causing cancer, feminization of men, diabetes, etc. But your precious mainstream media doesn't talk about that. They don't want you to worry about the real problems.

 

[erickmendes]

Apparently there is oil under that forest......

Lol. The truth is that there's one thing that's much more valuable: water.
But Bolsonaro is brainless. He works to clear the Amazon forest to use it's area to agricutural use.

There militar operations are just a facade.

And it's not only the rainforest that he is destroying. His ministers (we call then "sinisters") are destroying everything that the past presidents built. Education, healtcare, larbor rights, it's all going FOOBAR.

 

[Evernessince]

This is making an elephant out of a mouse. Stop panicking! It's just dirty propaganda.

Fires in forests have been happening since the first forest appeared. Billions of years ago. Fires are actually a good way of cleansing the terrain of old plants, to give an opportunity to young ones to thrive on the older generation ashes.

As soon as the grass starts growing on that ashes (in 10 days) it will start producing the same amount of oxygen as the forest did. Because only the surface area counts. And entire surface area will be soon covered by grass and bushes.

Regarding the CO2 emissions, as soon as those plants start growing, they're gonna need all that CO2 back, to build their trunks and branches. This is just a natural fluctuation (even if the forest were put on fire on purpose). Everything is returning back to normal.

God it's funny to see all of those climate alarmists jumping on every propaganda attempt launched by mainstream media. You should be worried about much more dangerous stuff, such as chemicals in your clothing, food and drinks. They are affecting your directly, right now. Causing cancer, feminization of men, diabetes, etc. But your precious mainstream media doesn't talk about that. They don't want you to worry about the real problems.

1. Wildfires have increased directly proportional to the increase in global CO2 https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/impacts/global-warming-and-wildfire.html. Of course they happened in the past but they were far more rare then they are now.

2. No, a forests will most certainly not be producing the same oxygen after 10 days. You aren't even remotely close
https://www.quora.com/How-long-does-it-take-a-forest-to-come-back-from-a-forest-fire. Even with active restoration efforts in place, it takes 3-5 years. Without those efforts you'd be looking at 5-10 years. That's not in including the reduction in Biodiversity. In addition, older, larger trees produce more oxygen. https://offgridquest.com/green/older-larger-trees-produce-more-oxygen-a. The 10 day time period you suggested is just barely enough for them to sprout, let alone grow out of the sapling stage. Before they grow out of the sapling stage, their oxygen production will be severely limited. You seem to be referencing the old numbers of young trees but trees do not go from seed to tree in 10 days.

3. Even after a forest grows back it will not completely negate the carbon released in the atmosphere. Carbon is not only released from the trees themselves burning but also from the fire's own consumption of oxygen and from the soil. Forest beds capture carbon and all that is released when a sever fire occurs. Now a controlled or light fire buring off dead vegetation or other decaying matter can reduce carbon emissions but that's not the kind of fires we've been having in the Amazon or Cali lately. There is a big difference between the two.

4. I don't see why you can't tackle both chemicals and climate change.

 

[Footlong]

Apparently there is oil under that forest......

Actually, there is. Just Google and it. There is also natural gas. If you are into mining there is gold, mostly in the French portion. It also has been found large deposits of diamonds and other valuable ores.
The burning happening right now is part of the agricultural business in Brazil giving a huge middle finger to the world reminding that although 9 countries control the Amazon rainforest Brazil has 58% of it.

 

[erickmendes]

This is making an elephant out of a mouse. Stop panicking! It's just dirty propaganda.

Fires in forests have been happening since the first forest appeared. Billions of years ago. Fires are actually a good way of cleansing the terrain of old plants, to give an opportunity to young ones to thrive on the older generation ashes.

As soon as the grass starts growing on that ashes (in 10 days) it will start producing the same amount of oxygen as the forest did. Because only the surface area counts. And entire surface area will be soon covered by grass and bushes.

Regarding the CO2 emissions, as soon as those plants start growing, they're gonna need all that CO2 back, to build their trunks and branches. This is just a natural fluctuation (even if the forest were put on fire on purpose). Everything is returning back to normal.

God it's funny to see all of those climate alarmists jumping on every propaganda attempt launched by mainstream media. You should be worried about much more dangerous stuff, such as chemicals in your clothing, food and drinks. They are affecting your directly, right now. Causing cancer, feminization of men, diabetes, etc. But your precious mainstream media doesn't talk about that. They don't want you to worry about the real problems.

This is making an elephant out of a mouse. Stop panicking! It's just dirty propaganda.

Fires in forests have been happening since the first forest appeared. Billions of years ago. Fires are actually a good way of cleansing the terrain of old plants, to give an opportunity to young ones to thrive on the older generation ashes.

As soon as the grass starts growing on that ashes (in 10 days) it will start producing the same amount of oxygen as the forest did. Because only the surface area counts. And entire surface area will be soon covered by grass and bushes.

Regarding the CO2 emissions, as soon as those plants start growing, they're gonna need all that CO2 back, to build their trunks and branches. This is just a natural fluctuation (even if the forest were put on fire on purpose). Everything is returning back to normal.

God it's funny to see all of those climate alarmists jumping on every propaganda attempt launched by mainstream media. You should be worried about much more dangerous stuff, such as chemicals in your clothing, food and drinks. They are affecting your directly, right now. Causing cancer, feminization of men, diabetes, etc. But your precious mainstream media doesn't talk about that. They don't want you to worry about the real problems.

1. "Fires in forests have been happening since the first forest appeared. Billions of years ago. Fires are actually a good way of cleansing the terrain of old plants, to give an opportunity to young ones to thrive on the older generation ashes."

Here you are talking about NATURAL fires, not the ones that's happening.

2. "As soon as the grass starts growing on that ashes (in 10 days) it will start producing the same amount of oxygen as the forest did. Because only the surface area counts. And entire surface area will be soon covered by grass and bushes."

... Agricultural use of land destroys the soil, that's a fact. And the most important thing that the rain forest produces is not the oxygen... It's the, guess what... RAIN. The air moisture that keep most of Brazil's central region from becoming a real desert. And grass don't do a thing to protect the biodiversity that the forest hosts. There's so much medicines that we still need to uncover from the Amazon forest. Taking it down won't help on this... And there's also unique animals and plant species that would be lost forever.

3. "Regarding the CO2 emissions, as soon as those plants start growing, they're gonna need all that CO2 back, to build their trunks and branches. This is just a natural fluctuation (even if the forest were put on fire on purpose). Everything is returning back to normal."

Sure. Another fact: Cows produce A LOT of CO2 emissions. Having more cattle than we already have in Brazil would help a lot reducing CO2... But nope.

4. "God it's funny to see all of those climate alarmists jumping on every propaganda attempt launched by mainstream media. You should be worried about much more dangerous stuff, such as chemicals in your clothing, food and drinks. They are affecting your directly, right now. Causing cancer, feminization of men, diabetes, etc. But your precious mainstream media doesn't talk about that. They don't want you to worry about the real problems."

Yep, God is really a funny one. God gave you the ability to think and to check your facts, instead you choose to swallow the Bolsonaro loadsheet.

 

[Udelh579]

So, are there any real ecologist in the thread? Or is it just know-it-all's?

 

[erickmendes]

So, are there any real ecologist in the thread? Or is it just know-it-all's?

One thing I can asure you: there's not even one ecologist giving advice for Bolsonaro staff.

 

[Kashim]

Apparently there is oil under that forest......

We must get every last drop of oil out of the ground and ocean floors in every single country! There are more important things in life than the environment, like being able to drive your giant SUV to the corner store.

 

[Gars]

Trump be like:
- Naah, its shoped

 

[RaXoR]

So, are there any real ecologist in the thread? Or is it just know-it-all's?

Doesn't take a degree to know that what is happening is only going to make things worse for us on this planet. Somehow burning the biggest rainforest in the planet is ok. I still don't understand how people can ignore the fact that we have accelerated the warming of the planet.

 

[erickmendes]

1. sorry for the bad engrish
2. Large text. Read at your own risk.

Let me give you guys some insight at what is happening in the polical space down here in Brasil:

- A daily journal in a small town on the Amazon region started rallying people for the "Fire Day". This small town main economic activities is wood extraction (guess from where... the forest), small mining operations (called garimpos) and cattle (which needs grass fields, which in turn are made burnning forest area to grow it...). It was asking people to burn the forest to show Brasil gov that the town wish to develop, and the enviroment concerns won't stop them. There's some rumors that there were a whatsapp group of people coordinating the fires in the forest.

- Some days after it, the day came, the "Fire Day". It was Aug 10. They was able to rally people not only on this small town, but on other small towns across the Amazon region, even further south into the central Brasil region. On Aug 10 they started the fires.

- Some days after the "Fire Day", one of the biggest brasillian city, São Paulo (perhaps the most important one), had it night come earlier: at 03:00pm day turned into night. It ocurred because of the flumes from the fires on the Amazon region.

- Brasillian news outlets started to spread the news about what was happening. The problem is that, as any internal (country wise) matter in any country, there's part of the news coverage that work to cover Bolsonaro acts (I would say @ss...), so they was trying to paint the Amazon fires as a not so important matter. They tried hard with a lot of strategies, but as soon as the international attention turned to what was happenning here in Brasil, Bolsonaro simple said that the fires could be NGOs act because his gov cut their fundings.

Now some facts:

- The Brasil present Environment minister is being sued for environment crimes when he was enviroment secretary on the state of São Paulo. He forged enviromental data so he could try to sell protected areas to industrial tycoons.

- Days before the "Fire Day", Bolsonaro asked to retreat the National Force from the Amazon region. Our environment protecting officials couldn't stay in the region without military protection, so they took most of their bases off the Amazon region, leaving most of the forest without fiscalization.

- The IBAMA (brasillian environment fiscalization and protection) had 21 out of 27 delegates fired (no pun intented...) and enviroment sinister (minister...) put police officers to the ranks. These were specialists on biodiversity before...

- Bolsonaro closed the Secretary for Climate Change and Forests. Bolsonaro choose ministers that deny Climate Change. Bolsonaro threated to leave the Paris Agreement (I don't know if it's called Agreement, but I get the idea).

- The Ministry for Enviroment on Bolsonaro's gov approved 239 new pesticides. 14 of it are forbidden in most countries for being carcinogenic and kill bees.

- Bolsonaro's actions made Germany and Norway leave the Amazon Rainforest Fund, making Brasil loose millions of dollars that were used help preserve the forest. The fire fighting airplanes that are being used to put out the fires were bought with this fund...

- The National Council for Enviroment (CONAMA) had its chair numbers reduced from 96 to 23, and most of it's participation now is from gov officials instead of civil people.

- Brasil's congress is starting to work to change the enviroment laws with the excuse to make it faster for big operations. This will put most enviroment rights we take now for granted on Brasil at risk.

- Brasil actual gov is studying how to allow more transgenic food, also mining operations INSIDE native brasillians lands. (they are also taking a lot of actions to leave brasillians native helpless, so they wont stand against anything).

- Brasil have INPE, national institute for spatial research, it's work is to keep track on land usage, and it''s most important task is to use sattelite imagery to measure forest destruction. Bolsonaro fired INPE's manager after he made public data that showed that Bolsonaro gov was not taking any action about the rising deforestation, saying that INPE's manager was being "unpatriotic"...

Last: It's plain simple to understand why Bolsonaro is making it easier to take the forests down: he have a lot of support from the "BBB" wing. It's the Bullet-Bull-Bible side of the Brasil politics. They are conservative groups that want to exploit Brasil resources, keep the population dumb (easier to manipulate), make it easier to buy guns. Bolsonaro administration with BBB support is working to destroy everything past govs achieved to the people: Education (they are working hard to make public universities become PAID), healthcare (they are cutting funding), and so on...

The extreme right took over. Bolsonaro's FUD campaing in the presidential race on 2018 had sucess. He won. He had specialists (from USA) that used WhatsApp to manipulated the population collective fears so they voted on him. They made the Workers Party (main left brasillian party - Partido dos Trabalhadores - PT) public image worst then it really is, after the biggest corruption case was discovered. The truth is that ALL MAJOR parties was involved.
Large portions of the mainstream media are simple complying and taking Bolsonaro side to heap the fruits ($$$).
Everything that we took for granted is at risk, I don't shy awy from the possibility that Brasil may become something close to the Gilead Republic, if the Bolsonaro clan keep on power, or if brasillian Army take over the country, as happenned on the past.

Brasil went from being a newly respected developing country back to being the Republic of Bananas we were back then.

We brasillians are prisioners of this fascist "democratic" regime, with no hope for the future, as large portions of the populations still under his influence.

That's the real situation of Brasil.

 

[Nero7]

It occurs to me that there are more than a few "situations" going on around the world that require a much more clear thinking approach rather than a political one. ANYTHING that involves the safety of the planet (proven, not opinionated) should be left to a larger body such as NATO or similar sized body and in those cases, it should be decisions based upon their scientific bodes, not the political ones.
It's certainly one thing for one or more countries to go to war or have trade disputes, but when the outcome can most certainly result in mass extinctions, especially humans, we need more clear thinking, logical, calculating minds at work.

The G20 has it all under control.

The current global warming is wanted to free the north from the ice. On top of that, the current hysteria which isn't the first hysteria is used to cash in and redistribute wealth.

More worrisome are the huge amount of volcanos that have lately errupted.

Also don't forget Africa is burning as well, in fact much worse than Brazil but there you don't have a right wing president to blame.

NATO currently only exists on paper and south america is none of their business.

 

[erickmendes]

It occurs to me that there are more than a few "situations" going on around the world that require a much more clear thinking approach rather than a political one. ANYTHING that involves the safety of the planet (proven, not opinionated) should be left to a larger body such as NATO or similar sized body and in those cases, it should be decisions based upon their scientific bodes, not the political ones.
It's certainly one thing for one or more countries to go to war or have trade disputes, but when the outcome can most certainly result in mass extinctions, especially humans, we need more clear thinking, logical, calculating minds at work.

The G20 has it all under control.

The current global warming is wanted to free the north from the ice. On top of that, the current hysteria which isn't the first hysteria is used to cash in and redistribute wealth.

More worrisome are the huge amount of volcanos that have lately errupted.

Also don't forget Africa is burning as well, in fact much worse than Brazil but there you don't have a right wing president to blame.

NATO currently only exists on paper and south america is none of their business.

Africa may be having it share of fires, but the problem about Brasil is not only a right wing president to blame, is that this president's acts is just a show for the rest of the world, Bolsonaro wants Amazonia forest to be used as land for cattle, mining operations, and so on. He don't give a damn about climate change or any environment cause, and put these concern as "left wing causes" (I hope he is hiding a right wing version of planet Earth somewhere up his never mind).

The problem is not if Brasil is the biggest pile of burning trees in the world or not, the problem is that the fire spots rised 278% from aug 2018 to aug 2019, while Bolsonaro dismantled any kind of environment protection in this region.

Btw, take a look at this map:
https://www.globalforestwatch.org/m...1U2VjdGlvbiI6IiIsImRhdGFzZXRDYXRlZ29yeSI6IiJ9

 

[erickmendes]

People are calling him BolsoNero down here.

 

[Nero7]

You'd do well to look at the oil crisis of 1973 and then again in 1979.
They told us over and over that within a few years there would be no more oil on the planet.

Now we know that it was all lies to make the arabs rich among other reasons. We found oil all over the world in GB and USA among other places. If we do not find anymore new oil sources its said that we have at least enough for another 100 years. Apparently oil also doesn't take millions of years to form.

Next the climate change. It is wanted. 20 years ago the same climate scientists warned us of an impending ice age and that we have to increase the CO2 output to counter it. The southpole is rising and growing. Canada and Greenland among other places will soon become habitable.

The current hysteria is so that they can globally increase all taxes for everything. People literally scream for taxes and protest for higher taxes. Just like how the church told you you'd get absolution they tell you that you save the planet.

Brazil first and foremost has a huge economic problem and it has to solve it.

Politicians are not stupid. Whenever you think that they act so stupid that it becomes insane, it must be deliberate instead.

 

[erickmendes]

You'd do well to look at the oil crisis of 1973 and then again in 1979.
They told us over and over that within a few years there would be no more oil on the planet.

Now we know that it was all lies to make the arabs rich among other reasons. We found oil all over the world in GB and USA among other places. If we do not find anymore new oil sources its said that we have at least enough for another 100 years. Apparently oil also doesn't take millions of years to form.

Next the climate change. It is wanted. 20 years ago the same climate scientists warned us of an impending ice age and that we have to increase the CO2 output to counter it. The southpole is rising and growing. Canada and Greenland among other places will soon become habitable.

The current hysteria is so that they can globally increase all taxes for everything. People literally scream for taxes and protest for higher taxes. Just like how the church told you you'd get absolution they tell you that you save the planet.

Brazil first and foremost has a huge economic problem and it has to solve it.

Politicians are not stupid. Whenever you think that they act so stupid that it becomes insane, it must be deliberate instead.

Brasil already uses 19,7% of it's land as grass fields for cattle... agriculture uses 8%. That's almost one third of land. Most of agriculture use is for producing soy. Brasil is the biggest soy producer in the world. Most of it is not used for human consumption, but for animal ration.

10% of Brasil population have half the wealth. About this 10%, most of them are on the agrobussiness.

You think that giving more land for meat production and agriculture use will help Brasil's economic problem? Wealth distribution? ...

The resources the Amazonia rain forest hosts are far more valuable now than oil ever was. There is not yet discovered medicines, there's the biodiversity, there's the biggest human usable water reservoir on Earth.

China is a good example of how unchecked "progress" can destroy environment. They got the biggest human made lake on earth of toxic mud. They got wealth distribution problems like Brasil, perhaps even worst.

That "progress", "development" chant, without regulation, only serves the rich ones.

 

[Nero7]

Brasil already uses 19,7% of it's land as grass fields for cattle... agriculture uses 8%. That's almost one third of land. Most of agriculture use is for producing soy. Brasil is the biggest soy producer in the world. Most of it is not used for human consumption, but for animal ration.

10% of Brasil population have half the wealth. About this 10%, most of them are on the agrobussiness.

You think that giving more land for meat production and agriculture use will help Brasil's economic problem? Wealth distribution? ...

The resources the Amazonia rain forest hosts are far more valuable now than oil ever was. There is not yet discovered medicines, there's the biodiversity, there's the biggest human usable water reservoir on Earth.

China is a good example of how unchecked "progress" can destroy environment. They got the biggest human made lake on earth of toxic mud. They got wealth distribution problems like Brasil, perhaps even worst.

That "progress", "development" chant, without regulation, only serves the rich ones.

Nowhere else than in socialism have people been poorer. Nowhere else has the gap been bigger.

China is a whole different topic and not comparable with anything else but China. They're about to become the worlds superpower number 1 by the way. Brazil is somewhere in the middle. A pushover country that lies in ruins.

You must do your own great leap forward.

Have faith and don't worry so much. Things that are beyond our imagination are in motion. Enjoy live. Don't blame the rich for being rich, blame yourself for not being rich. If you don't exploit the situation to become rich then someone else will.

Climate change and wealth distributions are topics for the G20. Your only goal must be ensuring that you're doing as well as possible. By attempting to change global things on your own you just open up yourself to foreign exploitation.

G7 is over, new trees will be planted in other places.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/08/planet-earth-has-more-trees-than-it-did-35-years-ago/

You should notice that none of the news talks about the global amount of trees and about the growth.

Greenland and Sibiria and Alaska will be freed from the ice and then plenty of trees will grow there. The deserts are also in the process of being terraformed.

 

[Nero7]

Looks like now is the perfect time to burn some trees down to make place. No need to spend efforts on extinguishing the fire when the hurricanes and rain season will take care of that. Once enough space has been cleared, the weather machines will kick in.