Abstract
Burning crop residues is a common way to remove them during the final stages of crop ripening in China. To conduct research effectively, it is critical to reliably and quantitatively estimate the extent and location of a burned area. Here, we investigated three publicly available burned area products—MCD64A1, FireCCI 5.1, and the Copernicus Burnt Area—and evaluated their relative performance at estimating total burned areas for cropland regions in China between 2015 and 2019. We compared these burned area products at a fine spatial and temporal scale using a grid system comprised of three-dimensional cells spanning both space and time. In general, the Copernicus Burnt Area product detected the largest annual average burned area (37,095.1 km2), followed by MCD64A1 (21,631.4 km2) and FireCCI 5.1 (12,547.99 km2). The Copernicus Burnt Area product showed a consistent pattern of monthly burned areas during the study period, whereas MCD64A1 and FireCCI 5.1 showed frequent changes in monthly burned area peaks. The greatest spatial differences between all three products occurred in Northeast and North China, where cultivated land is concentrated. The burned area detected by Copernicus in Xinjiang Province was larger than that detected by the other two products. In conclusion, we found that all three products underestimated the amount of crop residues present in a burned area. This limits the ability of end users to understand fire-related impacts and burned area characteristics, and hinders them in making an informed choice of which product is most appropriate for their application.
Highlights
Biomass burning is an important driver of climate change, and impacts both the carbon cycle and plant succession processes
Copernicus detected the largest amount of burned area throughout the study period, exceeding the totals detected by MCD64A1 and FireCCI 5.1 by approximately 71.5% and 195.6%, respectively
Interannual variation of Copernicus monthly burned areas showed a consistent pattern from 2015 to 2019, whereas the monthly burned area peaks according to MCD64A1 and FireCCI 5.1 often changed during this period
Summary
Biomass burning is an important driver of climate change, and impacts both the carbon cycle and plant succession processes. Several multiannual burned areas have been developed worldwide since the late 1990s and are freely available for study [1] These were developed for different purposes, occur at different scales, and offer different spatial resolutions, such that they vary considerably in distribution, size, and frequency of mapped fires [2]. Comparison between burned area products is a necessary step and practical tool for characterizing each product according to their performance, especially when field-based validation data are not available [11]. This should be recognized as a complementary assessment to product validation. A key consideration in such a choice is a study’s research objective and intended application of any acquired data, making the regional performance of each product an important criterion
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