06.09.2016
The 2016 call for action grants for the LIFE programme was launched on 19 May 2016 and covers proposals for both environment and climate action sub-programmes. The total budget for project action grants for this call is € 337 536 184. Of this amount, € 63 600 000 has been allocated to the sub-programme for climate action.
Extensive wildfires across Siberia, associated with high surface temperatures were monitored by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) throughout May, June and July 2016. Monthly temperature reports by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) have shown every month of 2016 to be the warmest of that month since records began, with July being the warmest month on record in absolute terms. Increased July surface air temperatures were most pronounced across northern Russia and western Siberia, where warmer and, crucially, drier environmental conditions fuelled the wildfire activity.
Quelle: ECMWF/Copernicus
Dry conditions across the region are highlighted by unseasonal low precipitation (see Figure 1), and soil moisture (not shown). Satellite observations of wildfire locations made by the MODIS instruments show a clear distribution across central Siberia from the Ob River in the northwest to Lake Baikal in the southeast, collocated with the driest conditions. Wildfires are commonplace in spring and summer across Siberia and forests in the Northern Hemisphere generally, with 2016 also having experienced significant wildfire activity in Fort McMurray, Canada during May and southern California during July and August. The Siberian wildfires, however, have been notable for their correspondence with the climate monitoring in C3S.
Fire observations from the MODIS instruments are also used in CAMS through the Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) to estimate daily emissions of carbon and other trace species which are used as surface boundary conditions for global atmospheric composition forecasts. More than half of the days of May, June and July 2016 were higher than the corresponding 2003-2015 daily mean emission. The net amount of carbon emitted by wildfires between 1 May and 31 July 2016 was 128 mega-tonnes of carbon (Mt C) according to GFAS which is the largest amount since 2012, when 237 Mt C were emitted, and the third highest May-July total since the GFASv1.2 record began in 2003. These emissions led to widespread smoke being visible across northern central Russia in mid-July.
