SAFARI 2000: Southern Africa Burned Area and Fire Emissions, 2000

Southern Africa is the geographic focus of this dataset, which provides spatial and temporal estimates of biomass burned area and emissions from open fires for the year 2000. It employs satellite-derived data at 1-km resolution, classifying land cover into forests, woodlands, and grasslands to model combustion and emission factors. The dataset includes monthly estimates for eight variables, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter (PM2.5).

Use Cases

• Modeling regional atmospheric chemistry and aerosol transport based on spatially resolved trace gas and PM2.5 emissions.
• Quantifying carbon budgets and biomass loss from fires using estimated burned area and CO2 emissions.
• Comparing fire regimes and fuel consumption across forest, woodland, and grassland ecosystems.
• Validating global fire emission inventories using the detailed 1-km resolution methodology and land-cover-specific combustion factors.

Strengths

• Employs a detailed 1-km spatial resolution derived from satellite observations (GBA2000 and ATSR).
• Models emissions for eight specific chemical species, accounting for spatial and seasonal variations in fuel conditions.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA EarthData signals established use and importance.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and exact file structure are unknown.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' date: Data.gov lists 2026-04-09, while NASA EarthData lists 2000-09 -30, suggesting potential metadata errors.
• Temporal coverage is limited to a single year (2000), which may not represent long-term trends or interannual variability.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Generated from satellite observations (Global burned area data for 2000 and Along Track Scanning Radiometer fire counts) combined with fractional vegetation cover and fuel load maps.

Time Range

2000

Freshness

2026-04 09 22:22:54.259886 (from Data.gov, but conflicts with NASA date)

Geography

Southern Africa