Indonesia’s Peat Fires Intensify Amid El Niño

Key facts

• Tropical peatland fires are slow-burning, highly polluting, and difficult to extinguish because they smolder at low temperatures and burn underground through expansive peat deposits.
• Peat fires generate three times more fine particulate matter, five times more sulfur dioxide, three times more organic carbon, and two times more methane and carbon monoxide than other tropical forest fires.
• NASA's Aqua satellite, using MODIS, captured an image of fires in Indonesia on September 1, 2026.
• Indonesia holds about 36 percent of the world's tropical peatlands.
• Previous El Niño years, especially 1997 and 2015, produced the most extreme burning in recent decades.
• The El Niño pattern, assessed by NOAA as present and strengthening in August, typically reduces rainfall in Indonesia, especially with a positive Indian Ocean Dipole.
• In 2015, Indonesia's fires released 1.75 billion tons of greenhouse gas equivalents.
• As of September 2, 2026, Indonesia's fires have released roughly 10 percent as much as the 2015 fires.
• About 90 percent of Indonesia received little to no rainfall in early August.
• The Indonesian government uses MODIS and VIIRS sensors to track active fires, and the SiPongi platform tallied 946 hotspots on August 31, 2026.
• Large-scale construction of irrigation canals and drainage of peat swamps in the 1990s lowered the water table, increasing flammability.
• Smoke from the fires has caused school closures, closure of nine national parks, and flight delays.