Australian Wildfire Burnt Areas and Burn Dates from MODIS

Giving access to locations of areas affected by fire and the approximate day of burning for Australian coverage. It is derived from daily daytime observations from MODIS sensors on Terra and Aqua satellites, processed with atmospheric correction and a kernel-driven BRDF model to account for geometric variations.

Use Cases

• Analyze the spatial distribution of burnt areas across Australia to identify regional wildfire hotspots.
• Investigate temporal patterns in the approximate day of burning to study seasonal fire trends.
• Use atmospherically corrected MODIS observations to validate or calibrate other fire detection algorithms.
• Apply the BRDF model outputs to understand the impact of observation and illumination geometry on fire detection.

Strengths

• Derived from daily observations from two MODIS sensors (Terra and Aqua), providing frequent data collection.
• Processed with atmospheric correction and a kernel-driven BRDF model to improve data accuracy.
• Data is actively maintained, with a last updated date in March 2026.

Limitations

• The specific data volume (rows, size) and column schema are unknown, limiting precise analytical planning.
• Primary file formats are HTML and PNG, which are not standard for quantitative geospatial analysis without underlying raster/vector data.
• The license is unspecified, which may create uncertainty for commercial or redistribution use.

Provenance

Source

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery

Collection Method

Inputs are daily daytime observations from MODIS sensors on Terra and Aqua, atmospherically corrected and analyzed for persistent reflectance changes.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-03-20.

Geography

Australia