The southern edge of the Central Siberian Plateau Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2019]/Sentinel Hub/Pierre Markuse

Huge wildfires are continuing to burn across the Arctic, and have now released more carbon dioxide in 2019 than in any year since satellite records began nearly two decades ago.

Temperatures have been well above average in the region, and fires erupted in boreal peatlands across Siberia around 9 June. Normally the fires would last a few days, but this year some vegetation and peatland has been ablaze for a month and a half.

The result is the rapid release of more than …