Abstract
High Latitude (HL) landscape fires are an important source of greenhouse gases and aerosols, with growing significance under rapid anthropogenic climate change-induced warming. Current fire emission inventories are mostly “bottom-up” in nature; combining, or relying on linear regressions between, satellite remote sensing data and process-based model outputs. However, these methods rely on uncertainties surrounding fuel load and combustion completeness. Here, we adapt the “top-down” Fire Radiative Energy Emission (FREM) approach for HL fires (HLFREM), linking Fire Radiative Energy (FRE) directly to emissions via coefficients derived solely from satellite observations. We derive biome-specific emission coefficients by combining Fire Radiative Power (FRP) from GFAS v1.4 with TROPOMI Total Column Carbon Monoxide plume observations, for the HL's four most fire-prone biomes; Deciduous and Evergreen Needleleaf Forests, Grasslands, and Shrublands. By applying these coefficients to daily GFAS v1.2 FRE totals (2003–2024), we estimate CO and total carbon emissions across the HL using HLFREM. HLFREM-derived CO emissions were found to be in good temporal and spatial agreement, but smaller in emission totals than other widely used inventories (GFAS v1.2 and GFEDv4.1s) in forested biomes, as well as with the MODIS-based FEER approach, with annual average differences of 54 % to 62 % smaller for Deciduous Needleleaf Forests, and 59 % to 70 % smaller for Evergreen Needleleaf forests. For Shrublands and Grassland biomes, HLFREM estimates are 65 %–75 % and 71 %–85 % lower respectively. Total carbon emissions, using Emission Factors, were found to show consistent patterns with CO across all biomes.