Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland

by Lobo Wed 09 Aug 2017, 6:15 pm

Lobo

Lobo: Moderator; Posts : 28411
Join date : 2013-01-12

Post n°1

Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland

by Lobo Wed 09 Aug 2017, 6:15 pm

Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland

By
Strange Sounds
-
Aug 9, 2017

Wildfires in Greenland!

Yes, there are currently not one but TWO unusual fires currently burning on the giant icy island. Unprecedented!

Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland Wildfires-greenland-august-2017

Two wildfires are currently burning on Greenland. Satellite photo of one of the wildfires burning in Greenland taken on August 3, 2017. by Sentinel-2B
How can you imagine a fire on Greenland as three-quarters of the island is covered by a permanent ice sheet, and permafrost is found on most of the rest of the island. This is why it is very unusual, and possibly unprecedented, that two wildfires are burning on the giant island.
Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland Wildfires-greenland-august-2017-1

Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland Wildfires-greenland-august-2017-1

Satellite image showing smoke coming from the two wildfires burning in Greenland on August 3, 2017. The red dots represent heat anomalies. via NASA
The fires are near Sisimiut in Western Greenland north of the Arctic Circle. They were first spotted from an airplane on August 3, 2017.
Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland Wildfires-greenland-august-2017-4

Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland Wildfires-greenland-august-2017-4

Per Mikkelsen pictures of the fires in Greenland on August 3, 2017. via Sermitsiaq
These fires appear to be peatland fires, as there are low grass, some shrub, and lots of rocks on the western edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet. They are likely occurring in areas of degraded permafrost.
Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland Wildfires-greenland-august-2017-3

Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland Wildfires-greenland-august-2017-3

The Sisimiut fires in Greenland on August 3 2017.
The European Union Earth Observation Programme has stated that wildfires in Greenland are rare but have no data on previous wildland fire activity in this region.
Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland Wildfires-greenland-august-2017-2

Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland Wildfires-greenland-august-2017-2

The wildfires are located near the city of Sismiut in West Greenland. Natural or human induced?

While it is not unprecedented for satellites to observe fire activity in Greenland, a preliminary analysis suggests that MODIS has detected far more fire activity in Greenland in 2017 than it did during any other year since the sensor began collecting data in 2002:
Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland Wildfires-greenland-august-2017-5

Two extremely rare wildfires are burning in Greenland Wildfires-greenland-august-2017-5

The number of wildfires in Greenland is increasing dramatically in 2017. via Twitter
It is not clear what triggered the fires. Sisimiut, the second largest town in Greenland, has a population of 5,500 people. Lightning or PEOPLE? 10 days ago, another pilot discovered mysterious steam coming out of the ice layer of Greenland.
http://strangesounds.org/2017/08/two-rare-wildfires-greenland.html