Wildfires Continue Emitting Carbon Dioxide Long After They Die
A recent study has found that forests destroyed by wildfires continue to emit carbon dioxide (CO₂) for years after the flames have been extinguished. The boreal forest, a critical CO₂ sink stretching across Earth’s northern latitudes, plays a crucial role in removing carbon from the atmosphere. However, when these forests burn, they release large amounts of CO₂, exacerbating climate change.
Impact of Wildfires on Boreal Forests
The research, conducted in central Sweden following the extreme wildfires of 2018, revealed that burnt areas continue to release CO₂ long after the fires have died down. This ongoing emission is significant, as it doubles the amount of CO₂ released during the fire itself. Scientists measured CO₂ exchange between the land and atmosphere over four years, comparing burnt and unburnt regions, as well as areas subjected to different post-fire management strategies.
Post-Fire Emissions and Recovery
In the study, areas where trees were killed by the fire or removed through salvage logging emitted an average of 650 grams of carbon per square metre in the first four years. In comparison, an unburnt forest of similar size would typically remove 1,200 grams of carbon from the atmosphere during the same period. The findings suggest that it could take more than 40 years for the burnt forest to recapture the CO₂ lost in the fire.
Role of Post-Fire Management
The research also highlighted the importance of post-fire management in the recovery of forests. Practices like salvage logging and soil ploughing, which are common in Sweden, were found to slow down the regrowth of vegetation. This delay hinders the forest’s ability to become a CO₂ sink again. Conversely, leaving surviving trees standing allows them to continue capturing carbon, albeit at a reduced rate.
Implications for Climate Modelling
This study emphasizes the need to rethink forest management practices as wildfires become more frequent due to climate change. It also calls for climate modellers to factor in the prolonged CO₂ emissions from burnt forests when assessing the environmental impact of wildfires.
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The U.S.-French SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite captured the leading edge of a tsunami wave that rolled through the Pacific Ocean on July 30, 2025 (11:25 a.m. local time), in the wake of a magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The satellite captured the data about 70 minutes after the earthquake struck. SWOT is a designed to map oceans and freshwater on Earth. The satellite recorded data from the tsunami as it passed through the deep ocean.
About SWOT
According to NASA, The SWOT satellite was jointly developed by NASA and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales). NASA provided the Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIn) instrument, a GPS science receiver, a laser retroreflector, a two-beam microwave radiometer, and NASA instrument operations. The Doppler Orbitography and Radioposition Integrated by Satellite system, the dual frequency Poseidon altimeter, the KaRIn radio-frequency subsystem, the satellite platform, and ground operations were provided by CNES.
These advanced technology and specialized radar helps SWOT to map the height of the ocean surface. In this case, SWOT’s measurement of the tsunami wave’s height and shape in open water showed that the leading edge of the wave was about 1.5 feet (45 centimeters) high. It also captured the wave’s profile and direction as it traveled toward coastal areas. Such detailed measurements of a tsunami at sea are unprecedented.
Better disaster forecast
The NOAA Center for Tsunami Research tested its forecast models using the new satellite data and found that including SWOT’s measurements could significantly improve forecast accuracy. NASA oceanographer Ben Hamlington noted that even a 1.5-foot tsunami in the deep ocean can amplify into a 30-foot wave at the shore and it is important to detect it early. Vasily Titov, chief scientist at NOAA’s Center for Tsunami Research, added that these observations suggest SWOT could significantly enhance operational tsunami forecasting – a capability long sought since the 2004 Sumatra disaster.
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Ancient Roman Inscriptions help us understand laws, traditions, economy, and even the emotional perspective of ancient people. Their lives and histories, however, have been rendered difficult to understand because, over time, the inscriptions have been damaged. Every year, there are 1500 Roman inscriptions discovered, albeit many of them are incomplete. Fortunately, advancements in technology like the new Aeneas tool, is helping in the future understanding of the Roman inscriptions. It serves as a large language model specializing in reading, interpreting, and giving context to Roman inscriptions.
Decode Ancient Roman Inscriptions
As Per Report,Drawing its name from a hero in Roman history, Aeneas, the model has been trained on nearly 200,000 latian inscriptions, which span from the 7th century to the 8th century covering regions from Portugal to Iraq.Aneas has the capability to analyze images of damaged inscriptions and predict or even fill in missing letters or words. In addition to that, it is able to determine a time frame and location for the inscription, as well as cross-reference it with other inscriptions containing similar phrases or purposes.
Making History Clearer Through Technology
Since Aeneas is trained exclusively on Latin inscriptions, specialists believe that he is less prone to random or false errors when compared to general AI approaches. University of Sydney historian Anne Rogerson remarked that Aeneas’s proposals, as informed guesses, still involve real historical data as opposed to baseless conjectures.
Despite the model’s open availability,Made public alongside the model’s code and data, Aeneas’s creator, Google DeepMind, offered the model without restrictions.
Most impressively, Aeneas can be accessed for free, enabling students and researchers to shift through and reinterpret previously concealed fragments of Roman history to understand them on a deeper level.
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