The extent of burning in African savannas

Abstract

The temporal and spatial distribution of African savanna grassland fires has been examined, and the areal extent of these fires has been estimated for the subequatorial African continent. African savanna fires have been investigated using remote sensing techniques and imagery collected by low-light sensors on Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites and by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) which is aboard polar-orbiting National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites. DMSP imagery has been used to map the evolution of savanna burning over all of the African continent/1/ and the analysis of AVHRR imagery has been used to estimate the areal extent of the burning in the southern hemispheric African savannas. The work presented primarily reflects the analysis completed for the year 1987. However, comparisons have been made with other years and the representativeness of the 1987 analysis is discussed.