Parrington says we need look at where black particulates – soot – from these fires is falling back to earth to understand the impact on the global climate. If it is deposited onto snow and ice, this would decrease the albedo and lead to more sunlight and heat being absorbed – increasing warming. Cams have some data to address this question, but urgently need more, he says.

Beyond more research, what can be done? Is there any chance of stopping these fires from spreading? Higuera, for one, isn’t optimistic. “It’s just not in the realm of possibility to say we will stop fires like this from happening in the future,” he says. “It’s like trying to stop a hurricane.”

Even fighting individual fires is extremely challenging, thanks to the remote, vast nature of the area and its lack of infrastructure. But not every fire should be fought, experts say: instead, we need to turn our attention elsewhere.

“It’s not an effective use of funds to go out and put out every northern fire – it’s just not feasible,” says Turetsky. “The most important thing we can do is overall climate mitigation – and our chance to do that is not in 15 or 10 years’ time.

“It’s now.”

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