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Carbon-releasing ‘zombie fires’ in peatlands could be dampened by new findings
New simulations have provided clues on reducing peat fires, which hide underground and are notoriously bad for human health and the environment – watch the video below and read more here.
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“World: we got this” PODCAST – Fire in the Tropics with Prof Martin Wooster
In the King’s College London podcast “World: we got this” (of the School of Global Affairs) we hear Professor Martin Wooster, Associate Director of Leverhulme Wildfires, talk about the importance of mapping wildfires, why not all wildfires are bad, and the unique threat posed by fires in the tropics.
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Determining the role of crop residue burning in post-monsoon air quality degradation across Northern India
Photo: Crop residue burning in the Punjab, India (2020). Different waste materials are burnt at different times of year. Unlike here in Feb, in Oct/Nov it is mainly the leftover straw from rice production. Millions of tonnes of material are burned annually. Credit: M. Wooster, King’s College London. Outdoor air pollution is the world’s greatest […]
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An interview with Prof. Jay Mistry
Prof. Jay Mistry is an Associate Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society, and Professor of Environmental Geography at Royal Holloway University of London. Her interests lie in environmental management and governance, participatory visual methods, Indigenous geographies, and fire management, particularly in tropical savannas. Our Centre Director, Prof. Colin Prentice, talked to Prof. […]
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Leverhulme Wildfires Research Workshop: Risk & Resilience (17 Sept 2020)
Our third Leverhulme Wildfires Research Workshop will be on “Risk and Resilience”, chaired by Prof David Demeritt. Please see agenda below, and get in touch at wildfire@imperial.ac.uk if you are not a Centre member or affiliate but interested in joining.
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Peat fires, like those raging in Siberia, will become more common in Canada (1 Aug 2020)
“The notion of wildfires in Siberia, an area known for its blustery, snow-capped landscapes, seems counter-intuitive. The recent blazes have been driven by a record heat wave in the Russian Arctic, but these aren’t your typical forest fires. They’re actually peat fires, a natural phenomenon that scientists have only recently begun to understand— and one […]
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Leverhulme Wildfires partners with charity Generating Genius, engaging students from African and Caribbean backgrounds in wildfire challenge
The Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society recently partnered with Generating Genius to run an outreach activity aimed at engaging A-level students in the topic of wildfires. Generating Genius is a UK-based charity which helps talented students of African and Caribbean heritage, and who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, to develop the skills and confidence […]
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A top-down approach to biomass burning emissions inventories and its application to Africa
Image: Monthly emissions of total particulate matter (TPM) from landscape fires in Africa for 2013 to 2018, as derived using the updated “Fire Radiative Energy Emissions” (FREM) methodology (blue) and compared to those of other inventories: GFEDv4.1s (green), GFASv1.2 (purple), and the FEERv1.0 coefficients applied to the GFASv1.2 (red) and SEVIRI FRE data (yellow). FREM […]
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Advances in the global observation of wildfires – using European satellites for real-time mapping the location and radiative strength of landscape burning from space
Image: Sentinel-3B SLSTR Night Time FRP – Data on active fires from the European SLSTR instrument now joins that from the US MODIS instrument in providing daily mapping of the strength if fires worldwide. The image shows the extent of fires detected in a single month. Satellite Earth observation (EO) of landscape burning is a […]
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Record heat wave in Siberia has far-flung consequences (13 July 2020)
“Oil spills, intense heat waves, smoldering wildfires and thawing permafrost: Siberia is experiencing the destructive effects of climate change. And scientists say if action isn’t taken soon, it’s only going to get worse”. Imperial’s Prof Guillermo Rein spoke to DW news about peatfires in Siberia. Image: A dry grass fire in Siberia, about 75 kilometers […]
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