SEVIRI FRP: Fire Radiative Power Gridded Over Africa

Fire Radiative Power (FRP) data from the Meteosat Second Generation satellite provides a 15-minute temporal resolution measure of radiant heat output from fires across the African continent. The gridded product spatially degrades the native 3 km resolution observations to a 1-degree grid while maintaining the high-frequency sampling. This dataset, produced by applying the Roberts and Wooster detection algorithm, supports the estimation of fuel consumption and smoke emissions from biomass burning.

Use Cases

• Estimating total fuel biomass consumed by wildfires based on integrated Fire Radiative Energy (FRE).
• Tracking diurnal fire activity patterns across Africa using the 15-minute temporal resolution.
• Modeling smoke emission plumes for air quality forecasting, leveraging the FRP-to-emissions relationship.
• Analyzing continental-scale fire seasonality and intensity from gridded 1-degree data.

Strengths

• High temporal resolution of 15 minutes enables detailed analysis of fire dynamics.
• Covers the entire African continent with a consistent 1-degree gridded format.
• Based on a peer-reviewed detection algorithm (Roberts and Wooster, 2008) and FRP estimation method (Wooster et al., 2003).

Limitations

• Spatial resolution is degraded from the native 3 km sensor data to a 1-degree grid, reducing locational precision.
• The exact time period covered is ambiguous; descriptions state 'a 12 month time period between February' without a specific year.
• Specific column names and the total row count for the dataset are not provided in the source metadata.

Provenance

Source

Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) data, processed by Gareth Roberts and Martin Wooster (National Centre for Earth Observation, Kings College London).

Collection Method

Fires detected using Roberts and Wooster's (2008) algorithm; FRP estimated via the Middle InfraRed (MIR) radiance method.

Time Range

A 12-month period starting in February (specific years not stated).

Freshness

Last updated metadata indicates 2026-07-08, though this may be a platform artifact as it is a future date.

Geography

African continent only (explicitly not Europe or South America).