Abstract
Understanding the Environmental and Climate Impacts of biomass burning in Northern sub-Saharan Africa
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, 2011 ( San Francisco, California, USA, 12/05/2011 - 12/09/2011)
12/05/2011
Abstract
The northern sub-Saharan African (NSSA) region, bounded on the north and south by the Sahara and the Equator, respectively, and stretching from the West to the East African coastlines, has one of the highest biomass-burning rates per unit land area among all regions of the world. Because of the high concentration and frequency of fires in this region, with the associated abundance of heat release and gaseous and particulate smoke emissions, biomass-burning activity is believed to be one of the drivers of the regional carbon and energy cycles, with serious implications for the water cycle. A new interdisciplinary research effort sponsored by NASA is presently being focused on the NSSA region, to better understand the possible connection between the intense biomass burning observed from satellite year after year across the region and the rapid depletion of the regional water resources, as exemplified by the dramatic drying of Lake Chad. A combination of remote sensing and modeling approaches is being utilized in investigating multiple regional surface, atmospheric, and water-cycle processes, and inferring possible links between them. In this presentation, we will discuss preliminary results as well as the path toward improved understanding of the interrelationships and feedbacks between the biomass burning and the environmental change dynamics in the NSSA region.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Understanding the Environmental and Climate Impacts of biomass burning in Northern sub-Saharan Africa
- Creators
- Charles Ichoku - Goddard Space Flight CenterCharles Gatebe - Goddard Space Flight CenterJohn Bolten - Goddard Space Flight CenterFritz Policelli - Goddard Space Flight CenterShahid Habib - Goddard Space Flight CenterJejung Lee - University of Missouri–Kansas CityJun Wang (Author) - University of Nebraska–LincolnEric Wilcox - Desert Research InstituteJimmy Adegoke - Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
- Resource Type
- Abstract
- Conference
- American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, 2011 ( San Francisco, California, USA, 12/05/2011 - 12/09/2011)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/05/2011
- Academic Unit
- Chemical and Biochemical Engineering; Civil and Environmental Engineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering; Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984585856402771
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