PETALING JAYA: Fires in Indonesia that have blanketed the region in haze are estimated to have accounted for nearly half of the world’s current weekly wildfire carbon emissions.
The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) estimated that fires in Indonesia emitted 14.4 megatonnes of carbon (MtC) between Oct 15 and 21.
“This accounts for almost half of the global total biomass burning emissions (31.5 MtC) for the same period.
“The only year that exceeds this is the El Nino year of 2015,” said its senior scientist Dr Mark Parrington.
For comparison, Indonesia’s estimated year-to-date wildfire emissions in 2026 stood at about 180 MtC, or roughly 15% of the global total of 1,150 MtC, he said.
Asked how emissions during the current El Nino year compared with previous El Nino years, Parrington said this week of 2026 is ahead of 2019 and 2006 but is still less than 2015.
“It looks as though some rain is forecast across Kalimantan in the coming days and we will continue monitoring to see if this reduces the fire emissions and haze,” he said.
In a Reuters report on Sept 9, Parrington said peat fires burning at low temperatures or underground could fall below CAMS’ detection threshold.
Asked whether this meant Indonesia’s fire emissions could be higher than estimated, he said CAMS’ estimates relied on fires being detected by satellite sensors.
“Quantifying how much we could be underestimating the actual emission is difficult at this stage, but we are comparing our data against other available datasets.
“In the future, we will also be comparing against measurements being made in situ around Palangkaraya at the moment to see what we can learn about improving our fire emissions estimation for Indonesian fires.”
Satellite imagery from Nasa also shows high concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) spreading across the region at high altitudes.
According to Nasa, the visualisation shows the distribution of CO at an altitude of 5,486m over the past three days.
