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June 10, 2022 - Early Fire Season Sparks to Life in Southwest Alaska
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Snow, smoke, and springtime fires colored the landscape of Southwest Alaska in early June 2022. On June 8, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image that stretched from Norton Sound (west) to Cook Inlet and the Kenai Peninsula (east). Multiple red “hot spots”, each accompanied by plumes of smoke, mark more than a dozen fires burning in this section of the state. A blanket of smoke covers the southern-most portion of the image, while copious snow blankets the highest elevations of the Aleutian and Alaskan Ranges.
According to the Alaskan Wildland Fire Information Map Series posted online on June 9, at least thirty individual fires were burning in Alaska, most of those in the southern half of the state. The Brooks Range as well as the North Slope (both to the north of the top edge of this image) remain fire-free. The same organization reported that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Alaska Fire Service were working one notable fire, the East Fork Fire, ramping up efforts to protect Native allotments, cabins, and nearby communities as wind pushed that fire to within 8 miles of the town of St. Mary’s. The East Fork Fire reached nearly 50,000 acres on June 9, after it crossed the Adreasfsky River earlier in the week.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks identifies four phases of the Alaska fire season, especially in the interior region of the state. The first is Early Fire Season, which occurs just after snow melt, typically from May through early June. This is phase is driven by dead grass ignited by human activities and driven by strong winds. The Peak phase, also known as the Duff-Driven phase, occurs by long warm days around the solstice. The warming temperatures dry out subsurface fuels (known as duff) that is easily ignited by lightning. This usually occurs from early June through mid-July. The third phase is Drought-driven Fire Season, which occurs if temperatures remain high and precipitation stays low. This season usually occurs in late July through the end of August. The final phase of the fire season is called the Diurnal phase, when nighttime temperatures drop and relatively humidity increase during the shorter days from September through May. Fire has difficulty igniting and spreading under the cooler, more humid conditions of this phase, but large, late-season fire events are becoming more common with increasingly warm temperatures later in the year.
According to the Alaska Public Lands Information Center, it is important to remember that fire is a part of the natural environmental cycle as well as a potential destroyer of life, property, and resources. Fire is a natural part of Alaska’s ecosystem, with many positive benefits. Not all wildland fires in Alaska are suppressed, many are allowed to burn themselves out, especially in remote and unsettled areas. All fires are monitored to assure they do not burn unchecked towards areas where human life or development/structures could be threatened.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 6/8/2022
Resolutions:
1km (1.3 MB), 500m (2.4 MB), 250m (10.9 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Snow, smoke, and springtime fires colored the landscape of Southwest Alaska in early June 2022. On June 8, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image that stretched from Norton Sound (west) to Cook Inlet and the Kenai Peninsula (east). Multiple red “hot spots”, each accompanied by plumes of smoke, mark more than a dozen fires burning in this section of the state. A blanket of smoke covers the southern-most portion of the image, while copious snow blankets the highest elevations of the Aleutian and Alaskan Ranges.
According to the Alaskan Wildland Fire Information Map Series posted online on June 9, at least thirty individual fires were burning in Alaska, most of those in the southern half of the state. The Brooks Range as well as the North Slope (both to the north of the top edge of this image) remain fire-free. The same organization reported that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Alaska Fire Service were working one notable fire, the East Fork Fire, ramping up efforts to protect Native allotments, cabins, and nearby communities as wind pushed that fire to within 8 miles of the town of St. Mary’s. The East Fork Fire reached nearly 50,000 acres on June 9, after it crossed the Adreasfsky River earlier in the week.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks identifies four phases of the Alaska fire season, especially in the interior region of the state. The first is Early Fire Season, which occurs just after snow melt, typically from May through early June. This is phase is driven by dead grass ignited by human activities and driven by strong winds. The Peak phase, also known as the Duff-Driven phase, occurs by long warm days around the solstice. The warming temperatures dry out subsurface fuels (known as duff) that is easily ignited by lightning. This usually occurs from early June through mid-July. The third phase is Drought-driven Fire Season, which occurs if temperatures remain high and precipitation stays low. This season usually occurs in late July through the end of August. The final phase of the fire season is called the Diurnal phase, when nighttime temperatures drop and relatively humidity increase during the shorter days from September through May. Fire has difficulty igniting and spreading under the cooler, more humid conditions of this phase, but large, late-season fire events are becoming more common with increasingly warm temperatures later in the year.
According to the Alaska Public Lands Information Center, it is important to remember that fire is a part of the natural environmental cycle as well as a potential destroyer of life, property, and resources. Fire is a natural part of Alaska’s ecosystem, with many positive benefits. Not all wildland fires in Alaska are suppressed, many are allowed to burn themselves out, especially in remote and unsettled areas. All fires are monitored to assure they do not burn unchecked towards areas where human life or development/structures could be threatened.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 6/8/2022
Resolutions:
1km (1.3 MB), 500m (2.4 MB), 250m (10.9 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
