Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 257e266

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Environmental Pollution
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envpol

Peat-fire-related air pollution in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Hiroshi Hayasaka a, *, Izumi Noguchi b, Erianto Indra Putra c, Nina Yulianti d,
Krishna Vadrevu e
a
Hokkaido University, Kita 13, Nishi 8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8628, Hokkaido, Japan
b
Inst. of Environ. Sci., Hokkaido Res. Org., Kita-19 Nishi-12, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0819, Japan
c
Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia
d
Palangkaraya University, Palangkaraya, Indonesia
e
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The past decade marked record high air pollution episodes in Indonesia. In this study, we specifically
Received 24 January 2014 focus on vegetation fires in Palangkaraya located near a Mega Rice Project area in Indonesia. We analyzed
Received in revised form various gaseous air pollution data such as particulate matter (PM10), SO2, CO, O3, and NO2 study region.
11 June 2014
We also conducted elemental analysis at two different sites. Results from 2001 to 2010 suggested the
Accepted 25 June 2014
longest hazardous air pollution episode during 2002 lasting about 80 days from mid-August to late-
Available online 30 July 2014
October. Maximum peak concentrations of PM10, SO2, CO, and O3 were also observed during 2002
and their values reached 1905, 85.8, 38.3, and 1003
106 gm3 respectively. Elemental analysis showed
Keywords:
Haze
significant increase in concentrations during 2011 and 2010. Satellite retrieved fires and weather data
Peat fire could explain most of the temporal variations. Our results highlight peat fires as a major contributor of
Air pollutants photochemical smog and air pollution in the region.
Photochemical smog © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PM10
MODIS

1. Introduction 11million ha of forest resulting in not only economic losses, but also
threats to biodiversity, water supplies, and other ecosystem ser-
Biomass burning is a significant source of atmospheric green- vices (Taylor, 2010; Hooijer et al., 2010). The resulting smoke
house gas emissions and aerosols (Andreae and Merlet, 2001). In plumes traveled long distances causing trans-boundary air pollu-
particular, tropical Asia is considered a major source of biomass tion in the region (Heil and Goldammer, 2001). After the largest air
burning (Streets et al., 2003; Vadrevu and Justice, 2011). In this pollution event that occurred in Indonesia in 1997, the govern-
region, several studies have reported significant biomass burning ments of the ten Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
emissions from deforestation (Van der Werf et al., 2008), slash and member countries signed the ASEAN agreement on trans-boundary
burn agriculture (Prasad et al., 2000; Langner et al., 2007), agri- haze pollution on June 10, 2002 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The
cultural residue burning (Cheewaphongphan and Garivait, 2013; ASEAN Haze Agreement is the first regional arrangement in the
Badarinath et al., 2009; Vadrevu et al., 2011, 2012), management world that binds a group of contiguous states to tackle trans-
fires (Murdiyarso and Lebel, 2007), peatland burning (Siegert et al., boundary haze pollution resulting from land and forest fires
2001; Usup et al., 2004; Page et al., 2002; Heil et al., 2007), etc. (Haze action on Line: http://haze.asean.org/).
Specific to peatlands, it is estimated that they account for 26e50 Gt In particular, haze in Indonesia results in serious environmental
of carbon in tropical Asia (Page et al., 2002) and thus a major source and health problems. For example, in 1994 and 1997 when exten-
of carbon release during biomass burning. sive forest fires were reported in Indonesia, pronounced peaks of
Of the different countries in Asia, fires from peatlands and total and tropospheric ozone were observed at Watukosek,
deforestation are most common in Indonesia (Usup et al., 2004). Indonesia (Fujiwara et al., 1999). The aerosols released by the 1997
For example, fires in 1997e1998 in Indonesia consumed over fires resulted in severe air pollution in Southeast Asia. Daily mean
PM levels reached 2000
106 g m3 and higher in Indonesia
* Corresponding author. during July through November, exceeding the ambient air quality
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (H. Hayasaka), [email protected] standard by at least a factor of 7. Also downwind to the fires,
(I. Noguchi), [email protected] (E.I. Putra), [email protected] (N. Yulianti), Malaysia and Singapore experienced severe air pollution exceeding
[email protected] (K. Vadrevu).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2014.06.031
0269-7491/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
258 H. Hayasaka et al. / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 257e266

Fig. 1. Location of Palangkaraya in Kalimantan and fire (hotspot) distribution by 0.5 grids.

the typical air quality standards (Heil, 2007). The Indonesian fires in (PSI) reached 371 (International Business Times, Thursday, June 20,
1997 released pyrogenic aerosols of around 55
1012 g PM10 into 2013, http://www.ibtimes.com/). Haze came from about 250 km
the atmosphere; the equivalent to around one-third of the global away where vegetation fires occurred in the east of Dumai, Riau
annual anthropogenic emissions of primary particles (Heil et al., Province, Sumatra in Indonesia. To reduce trans-boundary haze
2006). Indonesia also formally admitted to releasing a very large pollution from vegetation fires, information on pollution sources
amount of CO2 emissions from fires and deforestation (Nina, 2013). and their impacts need a thorough investigation. For urban air
In Indonesia, haze sources are mainly forest and peat fires pollution sources, there are several reports in Indonesia, but only a
associated with aggressive human activities with a very high few for vegetation fires (Pradani1 and Lestari, 2010).
deforestation rate of nearly 2% yr1 (ca.15, 000 km2 yr1). Vegeta- To assess the impact of peat fires on air pollution, we analyzed
tion fires in Indonesia could become very severe under severe El PM10, SO2, CO, O3, and NO2 data obtained from the Air Pollution
Nin~ o and quasi-El Nin ~ o conditions, like in 1982e83, 1997e1998, Center in Palangkaraya, in conjunction with MODIS satellite data
2002, 2004, 2006, and 2009. In particular, peat fires could become fire hotspots and local weather data. In addition, we also carried out
an even worse air pollution source due to its smoldering combus- field surveys in severe peat fire areas to characterize the behavior of
tion and underground fires. For example, Indonesia has about haze. Conditions and air pollution sources in 2002 and photo-
225,000 km2 of peatland (83% in Southeast Asia) of which, 57,600 chemical smog occurrence in Palangkaraya will be discussed based
and 30,100 km2 are in Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan on field survey results.
respectively (GLC, 2000). A large Mega Rice Project (MRP) was
carried out near Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan. The MRP area 2. Data and methodology
consists of 9191 km2 peat swamps. This kind of large-scale land 2.1. Hotspot (fire) data and weather data
development resulted in extensive deforestation (Main Synthesis
Daily MODIS hotspot data from 2002 to 2011 were extracted from the Fire In-
report, 2008). The 4000 km long irrigation system in the MRP is formation for Resources Management System (https:v/earthdata.nasa.gov/data/
not functioning properly, and as a result, bare peatlands are highly near-real-time-data/firms). Also, daily Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
vulnerable to fires during the dry season. MRP peat with roughly (AVHRR) hotspot data from 1997 to 2001 were obtained from JICA-SiPongi (http://
4500 km2 is more than 3 m deep and is the main source of fire- www.indofire.org/). These data indicated the main air pollution sources of peat-
land burning in Palangkaraya.
related air pollution. Fig. 1 shows the location of Palangkaraya along with the distribution of MODIS
In 2013, Singapore's worst air pollution event in the past 16 hotspots. Palangkaraya is located in Central Kalimantan (2.207 S, 113.917 E). The
years occurred on June 19th, where the Pollutant Standards Index distance from the nearest coastline is about 100 km and the average altitude is only
 H. Hayasaka et al. / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 257e266 259

around 10 m. The MRP was built in tropical swamp forest areas in the east and was found on both sides of the road. However, most of the land was abandoned
southern side of Palangkaraya. Before the disturbance, the tropical swamp forest farmland with severely burned forest and bush land.
could hold enough water to stay wet during the dry season. However, the newly The filter-pack method (FP) in Fig. 3 and the passive sampler method (PS) were
constructed 4,000 km-long MRP canal built for irrigation facilitated not only illegal used in this study (EANET, 2003; Noguchi et al., 2007). Both methods are already
logging, but also loss of water through drainage from most of the peatlands in the used by the international air pollution monitoring networks such as EANET (Acid
MRP area. This is one of the reasons for severe fire occurrence in the MRP area. Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia).
Circles in Fig. 1 show annual average fire occurrence in each 0.5 grid cell in Chemical analysis was conducted for FP and PS. FP collected elemental carbon
   þ þ
Kalimantan. Analysis using MODIS hotspot data for recent years from 1997 to 2012 (EC), organic carbon (OC), particle ion components (SO2 4 , NO3 , Cl , F , Na , K ,
suggested the highest number of hotspots of 901 (hotspots yr1) in a grid located in Mg2þ, Ca2þ and NHþ 4 ), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitric acid (HNO3), nitrous acid (HONO),
the south of Palangkaraya. Grids with the second and third highest number of and ammonia (NH3). Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was collected using PS.
hotspots of 666 and 632 were also found in the vicinity of Palangkaraya. The study
area is shown in Fig. 2. In total, 12 grid cells of 0.1 ranging from 2.125 to 2.425 south
latitude and from 113.8 to 114.2 east longitude. The total number of hotspots during 3. Results and discussion
the fire season (DN ¼ 200e329 or rate July to November) from 2002 to 2012 varied
from 998 in 2002 to 0 in 2010. The number of hotspots in 2002, 2006, and 2009 were
3.1. Analysis of air pollution data in Palangkaraya
998, 476, and 793 respectively, and the fires for these years exceeded the typical
average of 278 fires. Thus, we denote the above years as fire years and the other years
as non-fire years. This classification is closely related to El-Nino years and non-El- 3.1.1. PM10, SO2, CO, O3, and NO2 in 2002
Nino years. This is simply because peat becomes flammable only under low mois- Very severe peat fires occurred near Palangkaraya in 2002, two
ture content or under sever drought conditions due to El-Nino events. Weather data years after the Air Quality Management System started to measure
measured at Palangkaraya Airport (Tjilik Riwut, 2.224 S, 113.946 E) were obtained
air pollutants. Daily measured values of PM10, SO2, CO, O3, and NO2
from Palangkaraya University and were used for the assessment of fire and haze
conditions. during the fire season from August to November in 2002 were
shown in Fig. 4. Most air pollutants except NO2 showed a similar
trend. Maximum concentrations of PM10, SO2, CO, and O3 were
2.2. Air pollution data
observed on October 14 in 2002 and their values were 1905, 85.8,
The air pollution in Palangkaraya was monitored by the Air Quality Management
38.3, and 1003
106 g m3 respectively. API was also highest with
System and regional Center, Palangkaraya city. The locations of the three measuring
stations are Tjilik Riwut (P-1), Tilung (P-2) and Murjani (P-3), and they are shown in 1805. These air pollutant peaks occurred just after the hotspot (fire)
Fig. 2. Each station measured PM10, SO2, CO, O3, and NO2, by using automated peak on October 12 in 2002.
continuous analyzers. The Air Quality Center processes all air pollution data auto- NO2 showed slightly different emission trends as shown in
matically every 30 min and displays their values along with the Air Pollution Standard Fig. 4. Daily NO2 varied greatly from 7.3 to 67.4
106 g m3 during
Index (APS) every day (update time at 15:00) located in the 100 m rotary in Pal-
angkaraya. Unfortunately, this system was broken in 2011 and data were unavai-
the fire season. To compare the NO2 values both in fire and non-fire
lable. Accordingly, we restrict our analysis from 2001 till 2010. season, monthly averaged NO2 values were calculated. The average
NO2 value during the fire season from August to October was
2.3. Pollutant sampling for chemical analysis
30.5
106 g m3. In contrast, the average NO2 value during the
non-fire season from January to June was 13.6
106 g m3. This
An air pollution survey was conducted at an urban site in UNPAR (University of
Palangkaraya), and at a rural site in Taruna, as shown in Fig. 2. The site in Taruna is
difference of NO2 between fire and non-fire season may suggest
located in the southeast of the UNPAR site with 20 km between each site. The two two major air pollution sources, namely one from vegetation fire
rivers of Kahayan and Sebangau run along both sides of Taruna and small farmland and another from combustion in vehicle engines. In other words,

Fig. 2. Map of study area (three stations and two sampling sites in Palangkaraya and Taruna).
260 H. Hayasaka et al. / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 257e266

Fig. 3. Filter-pack method (EANET, 2003; Noguchi et al., 2007).

NO2 showed relatively lower values during the non-fire season followed the trend. Number of days of hazardous level of API>300
simply because the primary emission source is engines. During the were about 80 days in 2002 and 60 and 30 days respectively during
fire season, peat fires will mainly emit NO2, and thus the data 2006 and 2009.
showed relatively higher values. Under high NO2 conditions, the O3 PM10 levels in non-fire years, 2003, 2005, and 2010 were shown
peak occurred on October 14. This may suggest serious formation of in Fig. 6. Their number of hotspots and standard deviation factors
photochemical smog. were 124, 55, and 0, and 0.45, 0.65 and 0.82, respectively. From
Large differences found in PM10, SO2, and CO during the fire Fig. 6, PM10 in most years except 2010, the wettest year, exceeded
season in Fig. 4 also suggest a large contribution from peat fires. moderate levels in August and September. It is evident from Figs. 5
Especially, increased SO2 from around 5
106 g m3 in early- and 6 that PM10 levels in Palangkaraya were very high and posed
August to 85.8
106 g m3in mid-October (see Fig. 4) was severe pollution problems in the region.
mostly from peat fires, as there is no other major source of SO2
(such as industries) in the vicinity. 3.1.3. Chemical analysis results
As most API were derived from PM10 in 2002, a horizontal line Chemical analysis was carried out in the non-fire years of 2010,
was drawn at PM10 ¼ 420
106 g m3 to show the hazardous 2011, and 2012 for pollutant levels. Each year, two pollutant sam-
Level of API (>300). Thus from Fig. 4, we infer that the hazardous ples were collected at two sites in urban (UNPAR) and rural (Tar-
condition lasted about 80 days from mid-August to late-October in una) areas and analyzed using the filter-pack method (FP) method
2002. (Fig. 3, EANET, 2012). Peat fires were not observed in 2010 due to
frequent precipitation during the dry season, but in 2011, fires were
3.1.2. PM10 in fire and non-fire years observed often in both sites. In 2012, fires occurred in the south of
Severe fires occurred in 1997, 2002, 2006, and 2009 in Kali- Taruna. The observed air pollutant concentrations are shown in
mantan (fire years). PM10 trends for fire years were shown in Fig. 5. Table 1, with site information in Table 2. During 2011, concentra-
 þ
2002 showed the highest peak of PM10 and 2006 and 2009 tions of SO2 and SO2
4 (indicators of peat fire), NO3 , EC, OC, K , and

Fig. 4. PM10, SO2, CO, O3, and NO2 in 2002.

 H. Hayasaka et al. / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 257e266 261

Fig. 5. PM10 trends in fire Years, 2002, 2006, and 2009.

Fig. 6. PM10 trends in non-fire Years, 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2010.

HNO3 (indicator of vegetation fires or fuel N) were higher than Kþ, and NHþ 4 were also relatively high in East Asian records (EANET,
during 2010 and 2012 at Taruna. It is inferred that these air 2013; JELA, 2013) as shown in Table 3, except for the 2010 Taruna
pollutant concentrations were due to an increase in peat fires. In record, when no fires were present.
addition, particulate matter concentrations were also higher than The concentrations of HONO, NO2, and NH3 in 2011 are higher
that of gas components, where concentrations of SO24 were larger than those recorded in 2010. The concentrations reported in 2012
than SO2 concentrations. Furthermore, the concentrations of SO2
4 , are of the same magnitude as 2010. These results indicate that peat

Table 1
Air pollutant concentrations.

Site Data set Gas Aerosol

SO2 HNO3 HONO HCl NH3 NO2 SO2

4 NO
3 Cl NHþ
4 Naþ Kþ Ca2þ Mg2þ F EC OC
3
ppb mg m
Taruna 19e24 Sep. 2010 0.13 0.11 0.31 0.07 7.87 1.55 1.37 0.06 0.03 0.23 0.04 0.13 0.00 0.00 0.04 1.76 6.83
15e22 Aug. 2011 0.38 0.40 0.52 0.72 15.47 4.24 8.28 0.30 0.18 1.30 0.26 0.96 0.01 0.02 0.11 4.96 28.17
29 Aug.e5 Sep. 2012 0.31 0.27 0.26 0.41 7.66 1.65 7.38 0.13 0.06 1.36 0.12 0.49 0.02 0.01 0.06 2.99 16.54
UNPAR 17e22 Aug. 2011 0.95 0.33 0.68 1.47 29.80 6.57 10.94 0.95 1.09 2.54 0.30 1.22 0.02 0.02 0.22 5.96 87.92
29 Aug.e5 Sep. 2012 0.33 0.38 0.30 0.79 7.90 2.64 7.41 0.21 0.12 1.28 0.17 0.59 0.02 0.02 0.06 2.79 22.49
UNPAR: University of Palangka Raya
262 H. Hayasaka et al. / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 257e266

Table 2
Air pollutant concentration ratios.

Site Data set SO2 HNO3 HONO HCl NH3 NO2 SO2
4 NO
3 Cl NHþ
4 Naþ Kþ Ca2þ Mg2þ F EC OC

2011 Taruna/ 3.0 3.6 1.7 9.8 2.0 2.7 6.0 5.3 5.4 5.7 6.6 7.6 2.4 6.3 2.7 2.8 4.1
2010 Taruna
2012 Taruna/ 2.4 2.4 0.9 5.6 1.0 1.1 5.4 2.2 1.7 6.0 3.0 3.9 4.6 4.7 1.3 1.7 2.4
2010 Taruna
2011 UNPAR/ 2.5 0.8 1.3 2.0 1.9 1.5 1.3 3.2 6.2 1.9 1.2 1.3 1.5 1.1 1.9 1.2 3.1
2011 Taruna
2012 UNPAR/ 1.1 1.4 1.1 2.0 1.0 1.6 1.0 1.7 2.1 0.9 1.4 1.2 0.8 1.2 1.1 0.9 1.4
2012 Tarna
2011 UNPAR/ 2.9 0.9 2.3 1.8 3.8 2.5 1.5 4.5 9.4 2.0 1.7 2.1 1.0 1.3 3.5 2.1 3.9
2012 UNPAR
UNPAR: University of Palangka Raya

fires were the prominent contributor to air pollution in Taruna period in 2009 and the haze conditions are shown in Fig. 8. This
during 2011. The effects of peat fires in 2012 seemed to be negligible picture was taken at noontime, however, very low visibility due to
for HONO, NO2, and NH3 because the fires were located far from haze can be noted (Fig. 8). Under this dense haze condition, sun-
Taruna. Moreover, it should be noted that the NH3 concentrations light could not reach the ground easily suggesting that daytime
were higher than other gases and particulate components. Those convection flow by the sunlight barely occurred on these days and
concentrations were relatively high in East Asian records (EANET, the haze was confined to the surface. Thus, haze just moved hori-
2013; JELA, 2013) despite a lack of fire in 2010. zontally with the prevailing wind. This phenomenon is one of the
Relating to the survey results obtained at the city site (UNPAR), reasons for the highest API value (1805) during August, 2002.
the concentrations of many components are higher than those In Fig. 9, visibility observed at Palangkaraya Airport was shown
observed at Taruna. This is mainly attributed to the emissions from along with mean and gust wind speed. The lowest visibility of
not a few garbage incineration places in the open space of the city. almost zero was observed on October 2 (Fig. 9). Low visibility
However, particle components such as (NH4)2SO2 4 /NH4HSO4 conditions less than 1 km lasted about 70 days from late-August to
seemed to be of the same magnitude, or exhibited only minor late-October. About 16 days from DN ¼ 260 in late September,
differences between both sites. The concentrations of SO2 4 and visibility was less than 0.5 km and wind speed was also very slow
NHþ 4 are similar between 2011 hot spot areas, but in 2012 were (mean wind speed less than 2 m s1) (Fig. 9).
much different between hot spot areas. It is recognized that those
fine particulates are easily transported across a wide area. In 3.2.2. Air pollution sources (peat fire areas)
addition, fine particulate such as PM2.5 is also easily absorbed into The distribution of hotspots near Palangkaraya during the fire
the lungs and has a high risk to human health (Harrison and Yin, season in 2002 were visualized on a Google map in Fig. 10. Distance
2000). Thus, the human health risk is equally high both inside and direction from the city center were shown by circles and
and outside fire affected areas. straight lines. Locations of each hotspot (fire) were plotted by yel-
low, cyan, and red solid squares at each coordinate. Different colors
3.2. Haze and air pollution sources (peat fire areas) in were used to show the hotspot detection period. Yellow squares
Palangkaraya showed hotspots detected during the active fire season from
August to October (DN ¼ 210e310). Two other colors of cyan and
3.2.1. Observation of haze red were used to show different periods of DN ¼ 260e269 and
MODIS satellite images for fire years of 2002, 2004, and 2006 DN ¼ 280e289 respectively. These two periods were specially
were shown in Fig. 7. These images suggest that haze is transported selected because they were the worst air pollution periods in 2002
from southeast to northwest, which is the prevailing wind direction (see Fig. 6).
during the dry (fire) season in Kalimantan. Hotspots are not always From Fig. 10, we could identify several concentrated hotspot
found near thick haze, and vice-versa. Ground observations were areas surrounding Palangkaraya. In 2002, the densest hotspot area
carried out near Taruna during the most severe fire occurrence was identified near “Taruna” located about 15e20 km from

Table 3
Air pollutant concentrations at reference sites in east Asia.

Country Site Gas Aerosol

SO2 HNO3 HONO HCl NH3 NO2 SO2

4 NO
3 Cl NHþ
4 Naþ Kþ Ca2þ Mg2þ
3
ppb mg m
Cambodia Phnom Penha 1.30 0.20 e 0.40 10.50 e 2.70 1.16 0.22 0.45 0.57 0.54 0.75 0.12
China Hongwena 5.80 2.10 e 13.30 9.50 20.20 17.60 11.66 1.51 5.85 1.62 0.72 1.59 0.31
Indonesia Serponga 1.40 0.80 e 0.70 11.00 e 0.65 0.57 0.10 0.32 0.16 0.37 0.18 0.05
Japan Tokyoa 1.60 0.60 e 0.80 4.40 e 4.06 3.76 0.70 1.57 0.89 0.17 0.49 0.13
Sapporob 2.42 0.32 1.07 0.82 1.82 16.36 3.08 1.34 0.86 1.16 0.69 0.13 0.17 0.08
Malaysia Petaling Jayaa 2.00 0.70 e 0.80 6.70 e 4.22 1.14 0.11 1.12 0.32 0.34 0.37 0.04
Mongolia Ulaanbaatara 6.10 0.20 e 1.10 8.70 e 4.11 1.81 1.18 1.80 0.20 0.29 3.35 0.38
Russia Irkutska 5.60 0.10 e 1.40 1.70 e 2.28 0.88 0.43 0.62 0.28 0.25 0.35 0.09
Thailand Bangkoka 1.60 0.50 e 0.70 8.80 24.50 3.31 2.00 0.32 0.60 0.54 0.41 1.03 0.09
Vietnam Hanoia 1.90 0.90 e 2.00 6.40 e 14.40 6.82 1.33 4.50 0.67 0.85 8.67 0.35
a
Annual mean of 2011 by EANET data report.
b
Annual mean of FY 2011 by JELA data report.
 H. Hayasaka et al. / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 257e266 263

Fig. 7. Haze in Kalimantan observed in 2002, 2004, and 2006.

To understand the air pollution impacts due to peat fire in Pal-

angkaraya in 2002, daily fire hotspots were plotted for the fire
season along with PM10 (Fig. 11). PM10 increased from around
50
106 g m3 in early-August to a maximum value of
1905
106 g m3 in mid-October. On the contrary, the number of
hotspots showed a zigzag pattern from mid-August to late-
September. These different trends of PM10 and hotspots are due
to the unique nature of peat fires near Palangkaraya and MODIS fire
detection abilities. Similar to vegetation fires, peat fire needs an
ignition source. However, once a peat fire starts, it expands grad-
ually due to relative slow smoldering combustion and underground
peat fire will not extinguish until the start of the rainy season
(Fig. 11). A peat fire expansion is originally very slow but could
make a vegetation fire active depending on condition of ground
fuels. This is one of reasons for the zigzag pattern of hotspots
(Fig. 11) detected by MODIS. Another reason is due to dense haze
Fig. 8. Very low visibility due to haze from peat fires near Taruna (2009. 9.21). (low visibility in Fig. 9) from peat fires.
In contrast, the increasing trend of PM10 in Fig. 11 implies
increased air pollutant sources due to the increased number of
Palangkaraya with the prevailing wind direction being southerly.
vegetation fires and steady peat fire expansion. We note the change
Other dense hotspot clusters were found in the “MRP Block E-West”
of PM10 trend from early-October (day number around 270)
area about 10e15 km northeast, “Main Channel” area about
(Fig. 11) and this decreasing trend of PM10 is due to seasonal
15e25 km northeast, “North of Sebangau NP” area about 10e15 km
change from dry to wet season. Northerly winds started and
southwest, and “West of Palangkaraya” area about 10e15 km west.
brought rains (Fig. 11), however, under this seasonal change in
All of these locations are candidates for air pollution sources for
weather, the hotspot peak still occurred on October 12 in 2002 and
Palangkaraya. In addition to these, several scattered fire clusters
two days later PM10 and O3 had their peaks (see Fig. 5). Serious
were located near Palangkaraya center. They could also be a source
formation of photochemical smog may occur under clearer sky
of dense haze due to the short distance from the city center.

Fig. 9. Visibility and, mean and gust wind speed in 2002.

264 H. Hayasaka et al. / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 257e266

Fig. 10. Hotspot (fire) distribution near Palangkaraya in 2002.

conditions or with sufficient sunlight made by a northerly wind and In addition, we should note the increase of northerly and westerly
rainfall (4.4 mm on October 5, see Fig. 11). After this event, peat fires wind days.
were naturally and gradually extinguished in mid-November due to We hypothesize that hotspots (fires) in “Taruna” are a constant
heavy rainfall of about 58 mm on October 14. source of haze throughout the fire season, as it was the densest
Fig. 12 identifies air pollution sources (peat fire areas) for Pal- hotspot area (see Fig. 10) and fires started from late-July and lasted
angkaraya in 2002. The daily number of hotspots in three candidate throughout the fire season (Fig. 12). A southeasterly wind during
locations for air pollution sources were “Taruna”, “MRP Block E- the fire season could result in haze events in Palangkaraya area.
West”, and “West of Palangkaraya” plotted in Fig. 12 along with Fires which occurred in “West of Palangkaraya” area during
daily mean wind direction. DN ¼ 260e270 were shown with blue rectangles in Fig. 12. They
First, we noticed the seasonal wind direction change from dry may contribute to the high PM10 period before the end of the dry
(fire) to wet season occurred around late-September from a wind season (see Fig. 11), as “West of Palangkaraya” is located near the
direction curve in Fig. 12. A fitting curve with a dotted line in Fig. 12 city center (see cyan squares in Fig. 10).
clearly shows a change from southeasterly to southwesterly wind.

Fig. 11. PM10 and precipitation, and hotspot near Palangkaraya in 2002.
 H. Hayasaka et al. / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 257e266 265

Fig. 12. Hotspots in three areas and wind direction.

The highest number of hotspots in “Taruna” and “MRP Block E- Forest in Indonesia”. For Section 3.2, we would like to thank Dr.
West” occurred on the same day of DN ¼ 285 (see Fig. 12). These Sadamu Yamagata of the Hokkaido University for his support. The
fires may be the main source for the highest PM10 peak in Fig. 10 on work of Section 3.2 was also supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Sci-
DN ¼ 287 (see Fig. 11). Firstly, “Taruna” was the main contributor entific Research (24510023).
under southerly wind conditions. Secondly, “MRP Block E-West”
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