Identification

Title

Large transboundary health impact of Arctic wildfire smoke

Abstract

Rapid warming at high latitudes, particularly in Siberia, has led to large wildfires in recent years that cause widespread smoke plumes. These fires lead to substantial deterioration in summer air quality in the region, with a factor 4 increase in summer fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations in parts of Siberia during 1998-2020. Exposure to PM2.5 is associated with increased risk of mortality due to cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and the atmospheric lifetime of PM2.5 means that it can be efficiently transported between regions and nations. We used the Community Earth System Model to quantify the fraction of PM2.5 attributed to high latitude wildfires that occur in the Arctic Council member states and estimated the attributable health impact locally and in neighbouring countries. During 2001-2020 we attribute similar to 21,000 excess deaths to Arctic Council wildfires on average each year, of which similar to 8000 occur in countries outside the Arctic Council. Our analysis shows that the health impact of Arctic wildfires decreased during 2001-2020, despite the increase of wildfire-sourced PM2.5, which we suggest is due to a northwards shift in the average latitude of Siberian wildfires, reducing their impact on more densely populated regions.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7668jcn

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2024-04-13T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact