Global distribution and seasonality of active fires as observed with the Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors
Open accessAbstract
We describe a new global multiyear satellite fire product designed to meet the needs of the global modeling community. We use the new data set to analyze the global distribution of biomass burning using five different temporal metrics derived from 5 years of high‐quality satellite data acquired with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), on board NASA's Terra satellite. The global distributions of fire pixel density, peak month, season length, and annual periodicity are described. As part of our analysis we show, for the first time, the global distribution of the fire radiative power (FRP), a relatively new remotely sensed quantity. We find that low FRP tends to be associated with areas of cropland burning. In the tropics and much of the subtropics, low FRP is also associated with more heavily forested areas, while higher FRP tends to occur in areas of grassland burning. In boreal forests this trend is reversed, with higher FRP occurring in areas of greater tree cover. We next combine 3 years of Terra and Aqua MODIS observations to show that a strong diurnal fire cycle is prevalent at tropical and subtropical latitudes. We also consider the consistency of the fire time series recorded by the two MODIS instruments, and find the month of peak burning and fire season length observed by each to be in good agreement in most areas. However, significant discrepancies with respect to seasonality do occur in some relatively small areas, and are most pronounced in tropical rain forest.
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Daily fire detection has provided new insights into the seasonality of burning and the influence of fire-season length on fire size and total burned area.
“Daily fire detection has provided new insights into the seasonality of burning (Giglio, Csiszar, & Justice, 2006;Roy, Boschetti, Justice, & Ju, 2008), and the influence of fireseason length on fire size and total burned area (Andela et al., 2019).”
From Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers (2020) · cites this paper as Giglio, Csiszar, & Justice, 2006
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Biomass burning in Asia: annual and seasonal estimates and atmospheric emissions
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Dwyer, E., Pinnock, S., Gregoire, J.-M., & Pereira, J. M. C. (2000) · International Journal of Remote Sensing · doi:10.1080/014311600210182 · Cited by 233 · see citing works
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The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth
Bowman, D. M. J. S., Balch, J., Artaxo, P., Bond, W. J., Cochrane, M. A., D’Antonio, C. M., DeFries, R., Johnston, F. H., Keeley, J. E., Krawchuk, M. A., et al. (2011) · Journal of Biogeography · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02595.x · Cited by 1,230 · see citing works
“f c a Figure 4 Global distribution of fires generated by human and natural causes, represented as active fire counts per year recorded with the MODIS sensor (Terra) between 2001 and 2007 (Giglio et al., 2006).”
BackgroundClimate change and disruptions to global fire activity
Moritz, M. A., Parisien, M.-A., Batllori, E., Krawchuk, M. A., Van Dorn, J., Ganz, D. J., & Hayhoe, K. (2012) · Ecosphere · doi:10.1890/es11-00345.1 · Cited by 959 · see citing works
Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers
McLauchlan, K. K., Higuera, P. E., Miesel, J., Rogers, B. M., Schweitzer, J., Shuman, J. K., Tepley, A. J., Varner, J. M., Veblen, T. T., Adalsteinsson, S. A., et al. (2020) · Journal of Ecology · doi:10.1111/1365-2745.13403 · Cited by 729 · see citing works
“Daily fire detection has provided new insights into the seasonality of burning (Giglio, Csiszar, & Justice, 2006; Roy, Boschetti, Justice, & Ju, 2008), and the influence of fire-season length on fire size and total burned area (Andela et al., 2019).”
Peterson, D. A., Fromm, M. D., McRae, R. H. D., Campbell, J. R., Hyer, E. J., Taha, G., Camacho, C. P., Kablick, G. P., Schmidt, C. C., & DeLand, M. T. (2021) · npj Climate and Atmospheric Science · doi:10.1038/s41612-021-00192-9 · Cited by 236 · see citing works
Huffman, M. R. (2013) · Ecology and Society · doi:10.5751/es-05843-180403 · Cited by 168 · see citing works
Local and global pyrogeographic evidence that indigenous fire management creates pyrodiversity
Trauernicht, C., Brook, B. W., Murphy, B. P., Williamson, G. J., & Bowman, D. M. J. S. (2015) · Ecology and Evolution · doi:10.1002/ece3.1494 · Cited by 161 · see citing works
Switching on the Big Burn of 2017
Balch, J. K., Schoennagel, T., Williams, A. P., Abatzoglou, J. T., Cattau, M. E., Mietkiewicz, N. P., & St. Denis, L. A. (2018) · Fire · doi:10.3390/fire1010017 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Earl, N., Simmonds, I., & Tapper, N. (2015) · Geophysical Research Letters · doi:10.1002/2015gl066383 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Areas of the U.S. wildland–urban interface threatened by wildfire during the 2001–2010 decade
Thomas, D. S., & Butry, D. T. (2014) · Natural Hazards · doi:10.1007/s11069-013-0965-7 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
- Authors
- Giglio, L., Csiszar, I., & Justice, C. O.
- Affiliations
- Science Systems and Applications (United States) (US)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- ORCID
- Giglio, Louis
- Venue
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2006-06
- Volume
- 111
- Issue
- G2
- ISSN
- 0148-0227 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2086693959
- Cited by
- 662
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 50 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 48 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 39 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 47 · 2012: 35
- FWCI
- 16.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Remote Sensing in Agriculture
- Keywords
- fire hotspots, biomass burning, fire radiative power, fire seasonality, fire season length, grassland burning, boreal forest fires, MODIS Terra and Aqua
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