米西部の山火事の煙、欧州に到達　衛星データで判明

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】米国西海岸一帯で猛威を振るう山火事の煙がはるか欧州にまで到達していると、欧州連合（EU）の気候監視機関が16日に発表した。（写真は山火事の煙が立ち込める米オレゴン州ユージーン近郊）
　コペルニクス大気モニタリングサービス（ＣＡＭＳ）によると、現在米カリフォルニア州、オレゴン州、ワシントン州を襲っている山火事は「前例のない」規模で、衛星データからはその火勢が近年の平均よりも「数十倍から数百倍強い」ことが示されているという。
　ＣＡＭＳが火災で発生した煙粒子の長距離移動を追跡調査した結果、煙粒子は東へ８０００キロもの距離を移動し、欧州北部に到達していることが分かった。
　山火事は、地球温暖化に伴って著しく発生しやすくなるとみられている。米西部の火災では先月中旬以降、３０００万トン超の二酸化炭素が排出されたと推定されている。
　ＣＡＭＳ上席研究員で山火事専門家のマーク・パリントン氏は、「（２００３年から）１８年間監視データを収集してきたが、今回の火災の規模は過去のいずれの年に比べても桁違いだ」とコメント。
　「これらの火災が大気中に非常に多くの汚染物質を放出しており、（発生地から）８０００キロ以上離れた場所でも濃い煙が確認されるという事実は、火災の規模とその延焼期間がいかに壊滅的かを如実に物語っている」と述べた。
　数週間後に大統領選挙を控える米国では今回の山火事によって、地球温暖化問題が大きな政治的争点として浮上している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/09/17-11:57）

Smoke from the fires devastating swathes of the US West Coast has reached as far as Europe, the European Union's climate monitoring service said Wednesday in its assessment of the unprecedented blazes.
Satellite data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) showed that the wildfires currently raging across California, Oregon and Washington State are tens to hundreds of times more intense than the recent average.
Thanks to strong pressure systems, the smoke from the fires was trapped along the western part of North America for days, making for potentially dangerous air quality in major cities such as Portland, Oregon and Vancouver and San Francisco.
But the weather shifted on Monday, carrying the smoke east along the jet stream. The site NY Metro Weather said Tuesday that it was visible in the skies above New York.
CAMS said that it had tracked the long-range transport of smoke particles from the fires as far as 8,000 kilometres to the east -- reaching northern Europe.
It estimated that the blazes, which are significantly more likely to occur as the planet warms, have spewed out more than 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide since mid-August.
The scale and magnitude of these fires are at a level much higher than any of the 18 years that our monitoring data covers since 2003, said Mark Parrington, CMAS senior scientist and wildfire expert.
The fact that these fires are emitting so much pollution into the atmosphere that we can still see thick smoke over 8000 kilometres away reflects just how devastating they have been in their magnitude and duration.
- Climate link -
The blazes have already burned nearly five million acres (two million hectares) across the US West, torching an area roughly the size of the state of New Jersey, with fears the death toll of 35 may rise.
The disaster has brought the issue of global warming to the forefront of US political discourse a matter of weeks ahead of the presidential election.
While it has been historically difficult to prove the link between individual extreme weather events and climate change, there is a growing body of evidence showing blazes such as those in the US could not be so intense and widespread without the 1C of warming humanity has caused during the industrial age.
In general, climate change has been proven to amplify droughts that dry out regions, creating ideal conditions for wildfires to spread out-of-control and inflict unprecedented material and environmental damage.
Using a growing area of research known as attribution science, experts concluded that the wildfires that struck eastern Australia earlier this year were made at least 30 percent more likely due to global warming.