State of Wildfires 2023-24: Regional Summaries of Burned Area, Fire Emissions, and Individual Fire Characteristics for National, Administrative and Biogeographical Regions

This dataset supports the State of Wildfires 2023-24 report under review at Earth System Science Data (Jones et al., 2024; https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3601-2024). The dataset provides annual data and final-year anomalies in burned area (BA), fire carbon (C) emissions, and fire properties (e.g. distributional statistics for fire count, size, rate of growth). Annual data relate to the global fire season defined as March-February (e.g., March 2023-February 2024), aligning with an annuall lull in the global fire calendar (see Jones et al., 2024). The complete methodology is described by Jones et al. (2024).

Citation

Work utilising our regional summaries should cite both Jones et al. (2024) AND the primary reference for the variable(s) of interest as follows:

Giglio et al. (2018) for MODIS MCD64A1 BA.

van der Werf et al. (2017) for GFED4.1s fire C emissions.

Kaiser er al. (2012) for GFAS fire C emissions.

van der Werf et al. (2017) AND Kaiser er al. (2012) for the average of GFED4.1s and GFAS fire C emissions.

Andela et al. (2019) for the Global Fire Atlas.

Input Data

Burned Area (BA)

BA data from NASA’s MODIS BA product (MCD64A1) are extended from Giglio et al. (2018) and are available at Giglio et al. (2021, https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mcd64a1v061/). 

Period: 2002-February 2024

Resolution: 500m

Fire Carbon (C) Emissions

GFED4.1s fire C emissions data are extended from van der Werf and are available at https://globalfiredata.org/.

Period: 2003-February 2024

Resolution: 0.25 degree, daily

GFAS fire C emissions data are extended from Kaiser et al. (2012) and are available at https://confluence.ecmwf.int/display/CKB/CAMS+global+biomass+burning+emissions+based+on+fire+radiative+power+%28GFAS%29%3A+data+documentation.

Period: 2003-February 2024

Resolution: 0.1 degree, daily

Global Fire Atlas (Individual Fire Atlas and Properties)

Global Fire Atlas are extended from Andela et al. (2019) and are available at Andela and Jones (2024, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11400062, last access: 31 May 2024). 

Period: 2002-February 2024

Driven by 500m MODIS BA data (collection 6.1)

Regional Analysis

We performed "cookie-cutting" (spatial and temporal masking) of the above input data sets to features in each of the following regional layers (e.g. per country in the "Countries" layer). 

The statistics derived from cookie-cutting are listed below. Full details in Jones et al. (2024).

Layer

Short Form 

Source

Biomes

NA

Olson et al. (2001)

Continents

NA

ArcGIS Hub (2024)

Continental Biomes

NA

See above

Countries

NA

EU Eurostat (2020)

UC Davis Global Administrative Areas (GADM) Level 1

GADM-L1

UC Davis (2022)

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Working Group I (WGI) Reference Regions 

IPCC AR6 WGI Regions

IPCC (2021); SantanderMetGroup (2021)

Global C Project Regional C Cycle Assessment and Processes (RECCAP2) Reference Regions

RECCAP2 Regions

Ciais et al. (2022)

Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED) Basis Regions

GFED4.1s Regions

van der Werf et al. (2006)

Regional Statistics and Anomalies

Burned Area (BA)

Calculated regional totals for each fire season.

Relative and standardized anomalies from historical data (since 2002).

Ranking amongst all recorded fire seasons.

Onset, peak, and cessation based on monthly deviations from climatological means.

Carbon Emissions

Calculated regional totals for each fire season.

Relative and standardized anomalies from historical data (since 2003).

Ranking amongst all recorded fire seasons.

Onset, peak, and cessation based on monthly deviations from climatological means.

Statistics available for GFAS, GFED, and their mean.

Individual Fire Properties

Based on ignition point vectors from the Global Fire Atlas.

Calculated regional count.

Calculated regional maxima and 95th percentiles for each fire season.

Relative and standardized anomalies from historical data (since 2002).

Ranked anomalies among all recorded fire seasons.