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Satellite Data Show Forest Fires Inhibit Rainfall
By Kenneth Silber
Staff Writer
posted: 04:30 pm ET
05 October 1999
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trmm_rainfall_991005The U.S.-Japanese Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft has compiled what NASA calls the first direct evidence that forest fires inhibit rainfall. The data were collected during an overpass of Indonesia's island of Borneo on March 1, 1998, when part of the island was engulfed in smoke from forest fires. The spacecraft's radar detected that there was almost no precipitation in clouds that had been affected by the smoke, while there was precipitation in smoke-free clouds. An analysis of the data will appear in the October 15 issue of Geophysical Research Letters. The TRMM spacecraft is a joint mission of NASA and Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA). Scientists believe that smoke interferes with the "warm rain" process whereby droplets in clouds gradually get bigger until they begin falling. Earlier studies have indicated that urban pollution has an effect similar to forest fires. "We've seen evidence of decreased precipitation in clouds contaminated by smoke, but it wasn't until now that we had direct evidence showing that smoke actually suppresses rainfall completely from certain clouds," says Daniel Rosenfeld, a TRMM scientist and author of the upcoming paper. TRMM uses several instruments to detect rainfall, including radar, microwave imaging, and lighting sensors. Recently, scientists have been conducting airborne experiments near the Pacific island of Kwajalein to double-check TRMM data.
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