MODIS Burned Area: Monthly Global Fire Detection at 500m Resolution

MCD64A1 Version 6.1 is a monthly global gridded product mapping burned areas at 500-meter resolution. The algorithm uses MODIS surface reflectance and active fire observations to identify the ordinal day of burn for each pixel. This dataset is produced by NASA and includes layers for Burn Date, Uncertainty, and Quality Assurance.

Use Cases

• Mapping wildfire extent and timing based on the encoded burn date layer.
• Assessing fire detection reliability based on the provided quality assurance and uncertainty layers.
• Analyzing global fire seasonality and trends using the monthly, global gridded data.
• Calibrating or validating other fire detection models based on the MODIS active fire and surface reflectance inputs.

Strengths

• Provides monthly global coverage at a consistent 500-meter spatial resolution.
• Includes multiple data layers such as Burn Date, Uncertainty, and Quality Assurance for validation.
• Version 6.1 incorporates calibration improvements for MODIS reflective solar bands.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Generated from combined Terra and Aqua MODIS satellite imagery using a burn-sensitive vegetation index algorithm.

Time Range

Monthly coverage, specific temporal range not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:23:07.794762; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global