A new NASA-funded study finds that lightning storms were the main driver of recent massive fire years in Alaska and northern Canada, and that these storms are likely to move farther north with climate warming, potentially altering northern landscapes.

The study, led by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the University of California, Irvine, examined the cause of the fires, which have been increasing in number in recent years. There was a record number of lightning-ignited fires in the Canadian Northwest Territories in 2014 and in Alaska in 2015. The team found increases of between two and five percent a year in the number of lightning-ignited fires since 1975.

To study the fires, the team analyzed data from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites and from ground-based lightning networks.

Source: NASA

Image credit: BLM Alaska Fire Service - A lightning-caused wildfire burns in central Alaska in July 2008..

Related Missions:

• Terra Mission
• Aqua