The atmospheric aerosol over Siberia, as seen from the 300 m ZOTTO tower

This report describes a unique setup for aerosol measurements at the new long-term Tall Tower monitoring facility near Zotino, Siberia (ZOTTO). Through two inlets at 50 and 300 m aerosol particle number size distributions are measured since September 2006 in the size range 15–835 nanometer dry diameter. Until the end of May 2007 total number (N300) concentrations at 300 m height ranged between 400 cm−3 (5%) and 4000 cm−3 (95%) with a median of 1200 cm−3, which is rather high for a nearly uninhabited boreal forest region during the low productivity period of the year. Fitting 1-h average distributions with a maximum of four lognormal functions yielded frequent ultrafine modes below 20 nm at 50 m height than at 300 m, whereas the latter height more frequently showed an aged nucleation mode near 30 nm. The positions of Aitken (≈80 nm) and accumulation modes (≈210 nm) were very similar at both inlet heights, the very sharp latter one being the most frequent of all modes. The encouraging first results let us expect exciting newfindings during the summer period with frequent forest fires and secondary particle sources from vegetation emissions

Forest fires under abnormal weather conditions in Central Siberia

Occurrence of forest fires and their development to large and catastrophic wildfires are considered for Central Siberia taiga subzones under abnormal drought conditions. The combination of natural conditions that determine the appearance and spread of these fires are given for drought conditions. A map of the large wildfires distribution in the boreal forest subzones of Central Siberia is compiled for 1979 to 2011. A brief analysis is made of dry periods and their relation to the planetary atmospheric processes, as well as the possibility of wildfires escalating in boreal forests and mountain forests of southern Siberia under climate warming