The Global Fire Atlas is a global dataset that tracks the day-to-day dynamics of individual fires to determine the timing and location of ignitions, fire size, duration, daily expansion, fire line length, speed, and direction of spread. These individual fire characteristics were derived based on the Global Fire Atlas algorithm and estimated day of burn information at 500-m resolution from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Collection 6 MCD64A1 burned area product. The algorithm identified 13.3 million individual fires (>=21 ha or 0.21 km2; the size of one MODIS pixel) over the 2003-2016 study period.

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) requests burn severity assessments through an agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to be completed by analysts with the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) Program. These data products are burned area boundary shapefiles derived from post-fire sensor data (including Landsat TM, Landsat ETM+, Landsat OLI). The pre-fire and post-fire subsets included were used to create Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and then a differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) image. The objective of this assessment was to generate burned area boundaries for each fire. Data bundles also include post-fire subset, pre-fire subset, NBR, and dNBR images. This map layer is a thematic raster image of burn severity classes for all inventoried fires occurring in CONUS during calendar year 2010. Fires omitted from this mapped inventory are those where suitable satellite imagery was not available, or fires which were not discernable from available imagery.

This is an updated and extended record of the Global Fire Atlas introduced by Andela et al. (2019). Input data (burned area and land cover products) are updated to the MODIS Collection 6.1 (the previous version was based on collection 6.0 burned area and collection 5.1 land cover products, respectively). The timeseries is extended to cover the period 2002 to February 2024.

Methodological Notes:

The method employed to create the dataset precisely follows the approach described by Andela et al. (2019).

The input burned area product is MCD64A1 Collection 6.1. It is described by Giglio et al. (2018) and available at: https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mcd64a1v061/.

The input land cover product is MCD12Q1 Collection 6.1. It is described by Sulla-Menashe et al. (2019) and available at: https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mcd12q1v061/.

Note that while the methods have remained the same compared to Andela et al. (2019), we do observe small differences between the Global Fire Atlas products originating from differences between the MCD64A1 collection 6.1 burned area data used here and the collection 6 data used in the original product. In addition, we observe more substantial differences in the dominant land cover class associated with each fire due to the differences between the MCD12Q1 collection 6.1 data used here and collection 5.1 data used in the original product.

The original dataset included time series from 2003 to 2016, including the full fire season for each year. For each MODIS tile, the fire season is defined as the twelve months centred on the month with peak burend area (see Andela et al., 2019). Here we extended the time-series to include the fire season of 2002, and extended the time-series until February 2024. Therefore, both the 2023 and 2024 files will contain incomplete records. For example, for a MODIS tile with peak burned area in December, the 2023 fire season would be defined as the period from July 2023 to June 2024, with the current record ending in February 2024. For the purpose of time-series analysis, we note that the 2002 product may have been affected by outages of Terra-MODIS (most notably, June 15 2001 - July 3 2001 and March 19 2002 - March 28 2002), which affects the burn date estimates and Global Fire Atlas product. Following the launch of Aqua-MODIS in May 2002 burn date estimates are more reliable as estimated from both MODIS sensors onboard Terra and Aqua.

Usage Notes:

Table 1: Overview of the Global Fire Atlas data layers. The shapefiles of ignition locations (point) and fire perimeters (polygon) contain attribute tables with summary information for each individual fire, while the underlying 500 m gridded layers reflect the day-to-day behavior of the individual fires. In addition, we provide aggregated monthly summary layers at a 0.25° resolution for regional and global analyses.

File name Content

SHP_ignitions.zip Shapefiles of ignition locations with attribute tables (see Table 2)

SHP_perimeters.zip Shapefiles of final fire perimeters with attribute tables (see Table 2)

GeoTIFF_direction.zip 500 m resolution daily gridded data on direction of spread (8 classes)

GeoTIFF_day_of_burn.zip 500 m resolution daily gridded data on day of burn (day of year; 1-366)

GeoTIFF_speed.zip 500 m resolution daily gridded data on speed (km/day)

GeoTIFF_fire_line.zip 500 m resolution daily gridded data on the fire line (day of year; 1-366)

GeoTIFF_monthly_summaries.zip Aggregated 0.25° resolution monthly summary layers. These files include the sum of ignitions, average size (km2), average duration (days), average daily fire line (km), average daily fire expansion (km2/day), average speed (km/day), and dominant direction of spread (8 classes).

Table 2: Overview of the Global Fire Atlas shapefile attribute tables. The shapefiles of ignition locations (point) and fire perimeters (polygon) contain attribute tables with summary information for each individual fire.

Attribute Explanation / units

lat, lon Coordinates of ignition location (°)

size Fire size (km2)

perimeter Fire perimeter (km)

start_date, start_DOY Start date (yyyy-mm-dd), start day of year (1-366)

end_date, end_DOY End date (yyyy-mm-dd), end day of year (1-366)

duration Duration (days)

fire_line Average length of daily fire line (km)

spread Average daily fire growth (km2/day)

speed Average speed (km/day)

direction, direc_frac Dominant direction of spread (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW) and associated fraction

MODIS_tile MODIS tile id

landcover, landc_frac MCD12Q1 dominant land cover class and fraction (UMD classification), provided for 2002-2023

GFED_regio GFED region (van der Werf et al., 2017; available at https://www.globalfiredata.org/)

File Naming Convention:

GFA_v{time-stamp}_{data-type}_{fire_season}.{file_type}

{time-stamp} = Date that code was run.

{data-type} = “ignitions” or “perimeters” for vector files; “day_of_burn”, “direction”, “fire_line”, or “speed” for raster files.

{fire_season} = the locally-defined fire season in which the fire was ignited (see more below).

{file_type} = ".shp" for vector files; ".tif" for raster files.

Fire Season Convention:

Please note that the year string in filenames refers to the locally-defined fire season in which the fire ignited, not the calendar year. Hence the file GFA_v20240409_perimeters_2003.shp can include fires from the 2003 fire season that ignited in the calendar years 2002 or 2004. This is particularly relevant in the Southern extratropics and the northern hemisphere subtropics, where the fire seasons often span the new year. The local definition of the fire season is based on climatological peak in burned area as described by Andela et al. (2019).

Projections:

Vector data are provided on the WGS84 projection.

Raster data are provided on the MODIS sinusoidal projection used in NASA tiled products.

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) requests burn severity assessments through an agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to be completed by analysts with the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) Program. These data products are burned area boundary shapefiles derived from post-fire sensor data (including Landsat TM, Landsat ETM+, Landsat OLI). The pre-fire and post-fire subsets included were used to create Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and then a differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) image. The objective of this assessment was to generate burned area boundaries for each fire. Data bundles also include post fire subset, pre-fire subset, NBR, and dNBR images. This map layer is a vector Fire Occurrence dataset which contains point locations of all currently inventoried fires occurring between calendar year 1983 and 2014. Fires omitted from this mapped inventory are those where suitable satellite imagery was not available, or fires which were not discernable from ...

This dataset supports the State of Wildfires 2023-24 report under review at Earth System Science Data Discussions (Jones et al., under review, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-218). 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, under review, ESSD) 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: 2001-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).

Regional Statistics and Anomalies

• Burned Area (BA)
  • Calculated regional totals for each fire season.
  • Relative and standardized anomalies from historical data (since 2001).
  • 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.

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) requests burn severity assessments through an agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to be completed by analysts with the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) Program. These data products are burned area boundary shapefiles derived from post-fire sensor data (including Landsat TM, Landsat ETM+, Landsat OLI). The pre-fire and post-fire subsets included were used to create Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and then a differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) image. The objective of this assessment was to generate burned area boundaries for each fire. Data bundles also include post-fire subset, pre-fire subset, NBR, and dNBR images. This map layer is a thematic raster image of burn severity classes for all inventoried fires occurring in CONUS during calendar year 1987. Fires omitted from this mapped inventory are those where suitable satellite imagery was not available, or fires which were not discernable from available imagery.

This fire atlas includes all 1972-2012 wildland fires at least 20 hectares (ha) or 50 acres in size that occurred within or intersected the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness (Montana and Idaho). There are two main components of this fire atlas; the first being a fire history shapefile depicting fire perimeters, and the second being raster files representing satellite-inferred burn severity for these fires. For fires that occurred from 1972 to 1983, burn severity is measured as dNDVI (delta normalized difference vegetation index), which is calculated using Landsat multi-spectral scanner (MSS) data. For fires that occurred between 1984 and 2012, burn severity is measured as dNBR (delta normalized burn ratio), RBR (relativized burn ratio), and dNDVI (delta normalized difference vegetation index), which are calculated using Landsat TM (thematic mapper), ETM+ (enhanced thematic mapper plus), and OLI (operational land imager) data.This fire atlas was created for a project funded by the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) titled "Quantifying the effectiveness and longevity of wildland fire as a fuel treatment" (JFSP 12-1-03-19). To conduct this study, constantly generated fire history (vector dataset depicting fire perimeters) and fire severity (raster datasets depicting satellite-inferred metrics of severity) were needed for all fires greater than or equal to 20 hectares between 1972 and 2012.Original metadata date was 08/03/2015. Minor metadata updates on 12/19/2016.

This fire atlas includes all 1972-2012 wildland fires at least 20 hectares (ha) or 50 acres in size that occurred within or intersected the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem in Montana, which is comprised of Glacier National Park, Great Bear Wilderness, Bob Marshall Wilderness, and Scapegoat Wilderness. There are two main components of this fire atlas; the first being a fire history shapefile depicting fire perimeters, and the second being raster files representing satellite-inferred burn severity for these fires. For fires that occurred from 1972 to 1983, burn severity is measured as dNDVI (delta normalized difference vegetation index), which is calculated using Landsat multi-spectral scanner (MSS) data. For fires that occurred between 1984 and 2012, burn severity is measured as dNBR (delta normalized burn ratio), RBR (relativized burn ratio), and dNDVI (delta normalized difference vegetation index), which are calculated using Landsat TM (thematic mapper), ETM+ (enhanced thematic mapper plus), and OLI (operational land imager) data.This fire atlas was created for a project funded by the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) titled "Quantifying the effectiveness and longevity of wildland fire as a fuel treatment" (JFSP 12-1-03-19). To conduct this study, constantly generated fire history (vector dataset depicting fire perimeters) and fire severity (raster datasets depicting satellite-inferred metrics of severity) were needed for all fires greater than or equal to 20 hectares between 1972 and 2012.Original metadata date was 08/03/2015. Minor metadata updates on 12/19/2016.

This fire atlas includes all 1972-2012 wildland fires at least 20 hectares (ha) or 50 acres in size that occurred within or intersected the Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho. There are two main components of this fire atlas; the first being a fire history shapefile depicting fire perimeters, and the second being raster files representing satellite-inferred burn severity for these fires. For fires that occurred from 1972 to 1983, burn severity is measured as dNDVI (delta normalized difference vegetation index), which is calculated using Landsat multi-spectral scanner (MSS) data. For fires that occurred between 1984 and 2012, burn severity is measured as dNBR (delta normalized burn ratio), RBR (relativized burn ratio), and dNDVI (delta normalized difference vegetation index), which are calculated using Landsat TM (thematic mapper), ETM+ (enhanced thematic mapper plus), and OLI (operational land imager) data.This fire atlas was created for a project funded by the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) titled "Quantifying the effectiveness and longevity of wildland fire as a fuel treatment" (JFSP 12-1-03-19). To conduct this study, constantly generated fire history (vector dataset depicting fire perimeters) and fire severity (raster datasets depicting satellite-inferred metrics of severity) were needed for all fires greater than or equal to 20 hectares between 1972 and 2012.Original metadata date was 08/03/2015. Minor metadata updates on 12/19/2016.

This coverage includes fire perimeters recorded from 1889 through 2008 in polygon coverages acquired from 12 National Forests and two National Parks as described in the Data Set Credit section. It includes 7,550 fire polygons recorded from an area covering 13,839,584 hectares that include 44% of Idaho, Montana west of the Continental Divide, and Yellowstone National Park.Compile all digitally documented fire perimeters on National Forest and Park lands in the northern Rocky Mountain region in order to infer the climate drivers of regional-fire years.The first edition of these data was made available on 05/07/2009 (see Cross-Reference section), and included data from 1889-2003. This second edition adds fire polygons for five additional years of data.

Minor metadata updates were made on 12/20/2016 and 01/17/2025.

This fire atlas includes all 1972-2012 wildland fires at least 20 hectares (ha) or 50 acres in size that occurred within or intersected the Gila and Aldo Leopold Wilderness areas in New Mexico. There are two main components of this fire atlas; the first being a fire history shapefile depicting fire perimeters, and the second being raster files representing satellite-inferred burn severity for these fires. For fires that occurred from 1972 to 1983, burn severity is measured as dNDVI (delta normalized difference vegetation index), which is calculated using Landsat multi-spectral scanner (MSS) data. For fires that occurred between 1984 and 2012, burn severity is measured as dNBR (delta normalized burn ratio), RBR (relativized burn ratio), and dNDVI (delta normalized difference vegetation index), which are calculated using Landsat TM (thematic mapper), ETM+ (enhanced thematic mapper plus), and OLI (operational land imager) data.This fire atlas was created for a project funded by the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) titled "Quantifying the effectiveness and longevity of wildland fire as a fuel treatment" (JFSP 12-1-03-19). To conduct this study, constantly generated fire history (vector dataset depicting fire perimeters) and fire severity (raster datasets depicting satellite-inferred metrics of severity) were needed for all fires greater than or equal to 20 hectares between 1972 and 2012.Original metadata date was 08/03/2015. Minor metadata updates on 12/19/2016.

This dataset is an individual fire event database spanning the circumpolar Arctic-boreal domain. The dataset provides ignition locations and 12-hourly fire perimeters and active fire lines for all Arctic-boreal fires between 2012 and 2023. Vector-based perimeters were retrieved from 375m Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) active fire detections using an Arctic-boreal specific fire tracking algorithm. In particular, the algorithm was designed to handle very large fires with fragmented fire detections, very long smouldering times and deriving accurate fire perimeters in landscapes fragmented by many surface water bodies. Archive active fire data from VIIRS was used for 2012 to 2021, and near-real time VIIRS data for 2022 and 2023, when archive data was not available. This object-based fire event data allows for the characterization of fire types and fire regimes in the Arctic-boreal domain, and may be of use for validating and improving operational fire spread models used in fire management as well as global fire models.

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) requests burn severity assessments through an agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to be completed by analysts with the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) Program. These data products are burned area boundary shapefiles derived from post-fire sensor data (including Landsat TM, Landsat ETM+, Landsat OLI). The pre-fire and post-fire subsets included were used to create Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and then a differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) image. The objective of this assessment was to generate burned area boundaries for each fire. Data bundles also include post-fire subset, pre-fire subset, NBR, and dNBR images. This map layer is a thematic raster image of burn severity classes for all inventoried fires occurring in CONUS during calendar year 2000. Fires omitted from this mapped inventory are those where suitable satellite imagery was not available, or fires which were not discernable from available imagery.

Paramo Fire Atlas provides a comprehensive dataset on burned areas within the paramo ecosystem, organized by country (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru). Drawing from Landsat satellite imagery, it spans from 1985 to 2022, serving as a vital resource for monitoring fire dynamics and trends in this high-elevation ecosystem.

Wildfire perimeters for the Nuns, Tubbs and Atlas fires. These data were downloaded from GeoMAC on October 30th, 2017.

This map shows the burn areas of wildfires between 1887 to present in California. The perimeters are colored by decade to highlight the size and quantity of more recent years. The Living Atlas layer used in this map contains the fire perimeters from the previous calendar year, and those dating back to 1878, for California. Perimeters are sourced from the Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP) and are updated shortly after the end of each calendar year. Information below is from the FRAP web site.About the Perimeters in this LayerThe California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP) annually maintains and distributes an historical wildland fire perimeter dataset from across public and private lands in California. The GIS data is developed with the cooperation of the United States Forest Service Region 5, the Bureau of Land Management, California State Parks, National Park Service and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and is released in the spring with added data from the previous calendar year. Although the dataset represents the most complete digital record of fire perimeters in California, it is still incomplete, and users should be cautious when drawing conclusions based on the data. For detailed and current metadata and update cycle about this data and the source, visit this resource.Source: Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP)For any questions, please contact the data steward:Kim Wallin, GIS SpecialistCAL FIRE, Fire & Resource Assessment Program (FRAP)kimberly.wallin@fire.ca.gov

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) requests burn severity assessments through an agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to be completed by analysts with the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) Program. These data products are burned area boundary shapefiles derived from post-fire sensor data (including Landsat TM, Landsat ETM+, Landsat OLI). The pre-fire and post-fire subsets included were used to create Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and then a differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) image. The objective of this assessment was to generate burned area boundaries for each fire. Data bundles also include post-fire subset, pre-fire subset, NBR, and dNBR images. This map layer is a thematic raster image of burn severity classes for all inventoried fires occurring in CONUS during calendar year 2000. Fires omitted from this mapped inventory are those where suitable satellite imagery was not available, or fires which were not discernable from available imagery.

Feature layer showing all the fire perimeters tracked by Cal OES GIS for year to date.

The objectives of this work were to disaggregate the Portuguese Annual Fire Atlas burned area patches into individual events according to their date of occurrence estimated from Landsat temporal series, and to assign them the closest date (day and month) of the detected change. The resulting Monthly Fire Atlas is available from 1984 to 2021 for the entire mainland Portugal. We selected the closest fire date based on the index of the lowest ΔNBR in the time series. The maps were validated using MODIS and VIIRS active fires. Accuracies of individual years fluctuated according to the satellite and cloudiness of each year. For the entire 37 analyzed years, when considering 16 and 32 days of time gap, the Monthly Fire Atlas achieved 84% and 91% of accuracy, respectively. In the raster files, pixel value represents the meanDOY variable, which takes values from 1 (January 1) to 365 or 366. Missing values (NA) indicate that the pixel is not burned.