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Improving the Fire Emissions Inventory: A Dive in to the MODIS Fire Detections
Citation:
Pouliot, G., J. Wilkins, AND J. Beidler. Improving the Fire Emissions Inventory: A Dive in to the MODIS Fire Detections. 2018 Fire Continuum Conference, Missoula, MT, May 21 - 24, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Since Biomass burning has been identified as an important contributor to the degradation of air quality, having an accurate emission inventory of this emission source is important. One satellite product that has been used since 2003 in the biomass burning emission inventory is the Hazard Mapping System (HMS) which incorporates fire detections using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) sensor. The key research question being investigated is the unrealistic fire detections over coastal areas, notably over Southern Louisiana. This research investigates the fire detections found in the HMS operational product and recommends using an improved retrospective MODIS fire product that has had more quality assurance for fire detections. We plan to use the results of the research to improve the quality of the fire detections that are used as a basis for future emission inventories of biomass burning over the United States.
Description:
Biomass burning has been identified as an important contributor to the degradation of air quality because of its impact on ozone and particulate matter. EPA’s National Emission Inventory (NEI) relies on the SMARTFIRE information system to develop estimates of emissions from wildland fires. The Hazard Mapping System (HMS) dataset for identifying fire locations has been available from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as an operational product from 2003 to the present. EPA has used this dataset as well as other datasets to develop wildfire and prescribed fire emission inventories for multiple years using SMARTFIRE. In the HMS dataset, fires are detected from multiple satellite sensors. One sensor that is used for detecting and locating fires is the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS), which is located on two polar orbiting satellites (Aqua and Terra). Researchers have noted a prevalence and abundance of fire detections along the southern Louisiana coast that do not appear to be realistic. An analysis of the HMS MODIS detections over the southern Louisiana coast has identified this dataset as the source of the anomalous fire detections. Reprocessing of the entire MODIS data archive is periodically performed to incorporate better calibration, algorithm refinements, and improved upstream data into all MODIS products. We have found that the MODIS collection 6 products, which were created in February 2015, do not have these anomalous fire detections over Louisiana. In addition, the MODIS collection 6 product has additional quality assurance and improved geolocation. Replacing the HMS MODIS fire detections with the Collection 6 Global Monthly Fire Location Product (MCDML) results in an 18% decrease in the area of wildfires (3.0 vs 2.5 million acres) in 2013 across the contiguous U.S. In addition, estimated prescribed fire area decreases by 15% (8 to 6.8 million acres). The revised estimate of fire area results in a 32% decrease in PM2.5 emissions from both prescribed and wildland fires for 2013
