ABSTRACT
During the dry period of August-October 2015, a C-band Doppler weather radar of the BMKG station in a fire-prone peatland area, Palangka Raya, detected echoes with reflectivity values between - 19 and + 34 dBZ at a height below 2-3 km and a slant range of 100 km. The MERRA-2/NASA atmospheric reanalysis database is used to obtain the vertical profiles of refractive index and equivalent potential temperature of the air. The temporal variation of the radar image is due to the tropical diurnal cycle of planetary boundary layer formation, which is consistent with the results of the database analysis. The echo images are discussed in terms of Bragg scattering of microwaves at the top of the planetary boundary layer. Weather radar monitoring of the fire smoke layer-top images has a potential feasibility to support real-time management of peatland fires.
ABSTRACT
Tropical peatlands in Indonesia have been disturbed over decades and are a source of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere by peat respiration and peatland fire. With a portable solar spectrometer, we have performed measurements of column-averaged CO2 dry-air molar mixing ratios, XCO2, in Palangka Raya, Indonesia, and quantify the emission dynamics of the peatland with use of the data for weather, fire hotspot, ground water table, local airport operation visibility and weather radar images. Total emission of CO2 from surface and underground peat fires as well as from peatland ecosystem is evaluated by day-to-day variability of XCO2. We found that the peatland fire and the net ecosystem CO2 exchange contributed with the same order of magnitude to the CO2 emission during the non-El Niño Southern Oscillation year of July 2014-August 2015.
