Alaskan Fire Carbon Emissions Database 2001-2013

Annual carbon emissions from boreal fires in Alaska are estimated at 450-meter resolution for the years 2001 to 2013. The Alaskan Fire Emissions Database (AKFED) was produced by mapping daily burned area with MODIS imagery and Alaska Large Fire Database perimeters, then modeling carbon consumption using field measurements from black spruce forests. This dataset includes 26 GeoTIFF files providing both carbon consumption estimates and their modeled uncertainties for each year.

Use Cases

• Modeling annual carbon emissions from boreal wildfires using the carbon consumption GeoTIFF layers.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of fire emissions in relation to environmental variables like elevation and pre-fire tree cover.
• Incorporating fire emission uncertainties into climate models using the provided uncertainty GeoTIFF layers.
• Studying temporal trends in Alaskan fire carbon output across the 13-year period.
• Calibrating regional emissions models with field-validated data from black spruce forests.

Strengths

• Provides a 13-year continuous record (2001-2013) for longitudinal analysis of fire emissions.
• Includes modeled uncertainty estimates for carbon consumption, enhancing reliability for scientific use.
• Data is calibrated with actual field measurements from Alaskan black spruce forests.
• Offers high-resolution (450m) geospatial data for detailed regional analysis.

Limitations

• Conflicting last updated dates exist between sources (2013-12-31 vs. 2026-03-13), casting doubt on metadata freshness.
• Specific column names and row counts are not provided by any source, limiting understanding of internal data structure.
• The dataset's spatial coverage is restricted to the state of Alaska.

Provenance

Source

ORNL_CLOUD

Collection Method

Daily burned area mapped using MODIS imagery combined with perimeters from the Alaska Large Fire Database; carbon consumption modeled using field measurements and environmental variables.

Time Range

2001-2013

Freshness

2026-03-13 05:57:54.626980

Geography

State of Alaska, USA