GOES Imager Active Fire Detection for South America

WF_ABBA algorithm results from GOES satellite imagery provide active fire detections across South America from 2000 to 2005. The data includes latitude, longitude, brightness temperature, sub-pixel fire size and temperature estimates, ecosystem type, and a fire probability flag for each detection at 30-minute intervals. Both algorithm versions 5.9 and 6.0 are included, with version 6.0 incorporating a temporal filter to reduce false alarms.

Use Cases

• Tracking wildfire occurrence and frequency based on 30-minute satellite observations.
• Analyzing fire characteristics like sub-pixel size and temperature from brightness temperature data.
• Studying biomass burning emissions and their ecological impact using the associated ecosystem type.
• Validating and improving fire detection algorithms by comparing versions 5.9 and 6.0 of the WF_ABBA product.

Strengths

• Provides high-temporal-resolution data with observations every 30 minutes.
• Covers a multi-year period from 2000 through 2005 for longitudinal analysis.
• Includes two algorithm versions (5.9 and 6.0) for comparison, with version 6.0 featuring an improved false alarm filter.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is medium; explicit column names and row counts are not provided in the sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between platforms (2005 vs. 2026), suggesting potential metadata issues.
• The spatial resolution is nominal 4x4 km, which may limit detection of smaller fires.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Application of the Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WF_ABBA) to Geostationary Environmental Operational Satellite (GOES) imager data.

Time Range

2000 through 2005

Freshness

2026-04-10 (from datagov, though this conflicts with the 2005 date from nasa_earthdata)

Geography

South America