Enhanced CH₄ emissions from global wildfires likely due to undetected small fires.

ABSTRACT: Monitoring methane (CH₄) emissions from terrestrial ecosystems is essential for assessing the relative contributions of natural and anthropogenic factors leading to climate change and shaping global climate goals. Fires are a significant source of atmospheric CH₄, with the increasing frequency of megafires amplifying their impact. Global fire emissions exhibit large spatiotemporal variations, making the magnitude and dynamics difficult to characterize accurately. In this study, we reconstruct global fire CH₄ emissions by integrating satellite carbon monoxide (CO)-based atmospheric inversion with well-constrained fire CH₄ to CO emission ratio maps. Here we show that global fire CH₄ emissions averaged 24.0 (17.7-30.4) Tg yr^-1

SUBMITTER: Zhao J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11748658 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature