The catastrophic wildfires that scorched eucalyptus forests in southern and eastern Australia in the summer of 2019-2020 were unprecedented in their scale and intensity. Started in October 2019 and burning through January 2020, they scorched millions of hectares and killed or displaced an estimated 3 billion animals. The fires emitted vast amounts of carbon dioxide and lofted smoke plumes to record heights.
That smoky summer also affected marine ecosystems thousands of kilometers away, according to new research that combined satellite data and surface measurements. From December 2019 to March 2020, the deposition of aerosols emitted by the fires triggered phytoplankton blooms in the normally iron-limited waters of the South Pacific and Southern Ocean. Together the surface area of those blooms exceeded the size of Australia.
The image above, acquired on January 6, 2020, by the Japanese satellite Himawari-8, shows the plume of smoke and ash streaming away from the fires on the southeastern coast of Australia. As global climate warms, such fires are expected to increase in frequency and intensity, releasing more carbon dioxide, which further fuels climate change.
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Image via NASA Earth Observatory