How much land area burned each month (Terra+Aqua, 500 m)
What it measures. A monthly global map showing which 500 m patches of land burned and on what day, plus how confident the detection is.
How it's made. Created by combining MODIS surface-reflectance imagery with MODIS active-fire detections from the Terra and Aqua satellites, using changes in a burn-sensitive index to pinpoint the date of each burn.
How & where you'd use it. Used to measure how much land area burns each month and year, study fire patterns and their role in ecosystems, and estimate smoke and emissions from fires.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2000-11-01 → ongoing
- Measured byTerra (MODIS) · Aqua (MODIS)
- Processing levelLevel 3
- Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
- FormatsHDF-EOS2
- StatusACTIVE
What you can do with it
- Map vegetation, forests and biomass
- Monitor ecosystem productivity and carbon
- Support habitat and biodiversity studies
Official description
The Terra and Aqua combined MCD64A1 Version 6.1 Burned Area data product is a monthly, global gridded 500 meter (m) product containing per-pixel burned-area and quality information. The MCD64A1 burned-area mapping approach employs 500 m Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Surface Reflectance imagery coupled with 1 kilometer (km) MODIS active fire observations. The algorithm uses a burn sensitive Vegetation Index (VI) to create dynamic thresholds that are applied to the composite data. The VI is derived from MODIS shortwave infrared atmospherically corrected surface reflectance bands 5 and 7 with a measure of temporal texture. The algorithm identifies the date of burn for the 500 m grid cells within each individual MODIS tile. The date is encoded in a single data layer as the ordinal day of the calendar year on which the burn occurred with values assigned to unburned land pixels and additional special values reserved for missing data and water grid cells. The data layers provided in the MCD64A1 product include Burn Date, Burn Data Uncertainty, Quality Assurance, along with First Day and Last Day of reliable change detection of the year. Known Issues * For complete information about known issues please refer to the [MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/knownissue?sensor=MODIS&sat=TerraAqua&as=61).
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="MCD64A1",
version="061",
bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9), # your area (W,S,E,N)
temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"), # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results) # stream straight from LPCLOUDBrowsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package. Official links
- Earthdata Search allows users to search, discover, visualize, refine, and access NASA Earth Observation data. GET DATA
- The Application for Extracting and Exploring Analysis Ready Samples (AppEEARS) offers a simple and efficient way to perform data access and transformation processes. GET DATA
- The technical information in the User's Guide enables users to interpret and use the data products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- The ATBD provides physical theory and mathematical procedures for the calculations used to produce the data products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- The File Specification provides a description of the product file including Scientific Data Sets and their attributes. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Validation at stage 3 has been achieved for the MODIS Burned Area product. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Further details regarding MODIS land product validation for the MCD64A1 data product is available from the MODIS Land Team Validation site. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- The LDOPE Land Product Quality Assessment website provides known issues, maneuvers, and product quality of the land products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION