2008 Global Burned Area Maps from MERIS within ESA's Fire_CCI
Alonso-Canas, Itziar; Chuvieco, Emilio
University of Alcalá, SPAIN

Biomass burning is a global scale phenomenon that affects annually around 3.5 million Km2. The relevance of fire in e.g. the emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols, the carbon cycle and land cover changes, requires high quality, long-term burned area estimates. In the context of the fire_cci project, within the Climate Change Initiative (CCI) of ESA, global burned area maps are being generated from European sensors. This paper presents the methods and first global results of the MERIS Burned Area algorithm. This is the first time MERIS is used to map burned areas on a global scale. The algorithm is based on an hybrid approach that takes advantage of MERIS spectral and spatial resolution, and the temporal information provided by the MODIS Hotspots product. The algorithm has been tested in 10 study sites of 500x500 km covering the main biomes affected by fire. Time series from 2005 to 2009 have been processed. Results were compared with MODIS burned area products and the validation datasets that were generated for the fire_cci project. In addition to this, a first global product will be presented for 2008. Preliminary results show consistent temporal and spatial trends, with balanced omission and commission errors. Kappa values of 0.35±0.15 were found for four study sites used as a Round-Robin exercise. These values were higher than those found for products generated from other European sensors.