Global burned area mapping from European satellites: The ESA Fire_CCI project

Abstract

The European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) is part of the European contribution to the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) program. Fire disturbance is one of the Essential Climate Variables (ECV) included in the ESA CCI program. It focus on mapping burned area (BA) using European sensors (ATSR, VEGETATION and MERIS data), and in comparing the performance of the results with other existing datasets. The project aims at developing and validating algorithms to produce consistent, stable, error-characterized global BA information. The project includes as well developing algorithms to generate georeferenced and calibrated reflectances of (A)ATSR, VEGETATION and MERIS data, identifying potential sources of confusion with burned areas (clouds, smoke, cloud shadows, water, snow, topographic shadows). The final product will be a merging of BA information derived from three different sensors . The outputs will be adapted to the needs of the atmospheric and vegetation modelling communities.