Anomalous transboundary transport of the products of biomass burning from North American wildfires to Northern Eurasia

Abstract

An analysis of smoke in the atmosphere over the Russian Far East and Eastern Siberia in August 2004 was carried out. The results of the analysis indicate that the cause of the smoke in the atmosphere over these regions (with the values of aerosol optical depth exceeding 4 over the north of Kamchatka Krai) was the long-range transboundary transport of combustion products from North American wildfires. The anomalous (westward) long-range transport of the products of biomass burning was caused by atmospheric circulation characteristic for the atmospheric blocking of the dipole-type with a high-pressure region over the Chukchi Sea and a low pressure region over the south of the Bering Sea.