New research has revealed that mega wildfires emit massive amounts of methane gas into the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas whose presence in the atmosphere leads to an increase in temperature and is linked to global warming.

The research, published by UC Riverside, used a novel technique to evaluate the amount of methane in smoke plumes of the 2020 California lightning fires. It was found that wildfires stood as the third largest source of methane in the state.

This raises an alarm over the high emission rates of methane which warms the planet 86 times more powerfully than carbon, over 20 years.

Nevada's UCR research team used a new method called the remote sensing technique which is both safer for scientists and likely more accurate than the traditional methods.

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To measure emissions from 2020’s Sequoia Lightning Fire Complex of the California lightning wildfires, the team used the technique to capture an integrated plume from the fire that includes different burning phases.

Generally, scientists used the method of collecting wildfire air samples via aircraft and analysing them. This method was both costlier and more complicated to deploy.

The new technique, detailed in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, uses a different method to evaluate the amount of methane present in smoke plumes. Since different aerosols like methane and carbon absorb the sun’s rays and emit their energy differently, this method uses the sun as a light source to detect the presence of aerosols and provide insight into the quantity of carbon and methane.

According to Isis Frausto-Vicencio, the lead author and UCR environmental sciences PhD student, the new method allowed the team to safely measure an entire plume of gas and debris from 40 miles away.

“The plume, or atmospheric column, is like a mixed signal of the whole fire, capturing the active as well as the smouldering phases, that makes these measurements unique,” UCR environmental sciences professor and study co-author Francesca Hopkins was quoted as saying by Science Daily.

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The research team found that almost 20 gigagrams (one gigagram is 1,000 metric tonnes) of methane were emitted by the Sequoia Lightning Fire Complex. This means the fire emitted methane gas worth nearly the weight of 20,000 elephants.

The data found in the research matched the European Space Agency satellite data, which took a more sweeping, global view of the burned areas.

As per the results of the new UCR study, the amount of methane from the top 20 fires in 2020 was more than seven times the average from wildfires in the previous 19 years.

While the year 2020 was exceptional for methane emissions, scientists expect more mega-fires to occur in the coming years. “Fires are getting bigger and more intense, and correspondingly, more emissions are coming from them," Hopkins said in the report.

As for the state of US California, the state does not track wildfires as they are considered a natural source of methane. If they were considered, wildfires would have been the third biggest source of methane in the state in 2020.

(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)