The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire products and SAFARI 2000: mapping and validation of regional biomass burning

Satellite remote sensing provides the only practical means of monitoring biomass burning over large areas. The SAFARI 2000 dry season campaign included a number of biomass burning experiments with satellite data providing a mechanism to scale up these experiments to regional scale. The MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was launched December 1999 on NASA's first Earth Observing System (EOS-Terra) satellite, and provided daily observations over southern Africa for most of the 2000 dry season. The new spectral bands and spatial resolution of the MODIS instrument provide the means for improved study of fire and burned area. The MODIS 1km active fire product and an experimental 500m burned area product are presented. During the SAFARI 2000 field season the calibration of the MODIS instrument was still being evaluated and detector problems in the middle infrared significantly reduced active fire detection performance. These problems were resolved in early November 2000, after the major burning season in the region. However, the performance of the spectral bands used for burned area mapping permitted the development of a regional burned area product for the 2000 burning season. The issues affecting the performance of the MODIS fire products and their reprocessing status are described. The SAFARI 2000 dry season campaign included a major effort to validate the EOS data products. The methodology to validate the MODIS active fire and burned area products and initial results are presented. Validation was performed by analytical comparison of product samples with higher spatial resolution satellite data - the active fire product by comparison with ASTER data and the burned area product by comparison with Landsat ETM data. The validation was performed at locations across southern Africa from dry savanna to wet miombo woodland to quantify product accuracy over a range of representative conditions. The validated MODIS fire products are being used as input into regional emissions models and their utility investigated for resource management and environmental assessment by a regional