High Resolution (30 m) Burned Area Product Improves the Ability for Carbon Emission Estimation in Africa

Abstract

Fire significantly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. The current global burned area (BA) products mainly have coarse native spatial resolution, which leads to underestimation of global BA and carbon emissions from biomass burning. Performances of BA products in Africa from GABAM (30 m), MCD64A1 (500 m), GFED4s (0.25°), FireCCI51 (250 m), and GFED5 (0.25°) were compared. From 2014 to 2020, GFED5 detected the most BA, 1.58 times more than GABAM during the same period. GABAM detected 0.09 Mkm² more burned area than FireCCI51 on average. From 2014 to 2016, GABAM detected an average of 2.99 Mkm² of BA in Africa, which was 1.03 times more than GFED4s. From 2014 to 2021, the average African BA derived from GABAM was 2.89 Mkm², 1.22 times more than MCD64A1. The increase in BA will inevitably lead to an increase in the estimation of carbon emissions from biomass burning. Based on GABAM products and GFED framework, we estimated the average vegetation burning carbon emissions in Africa from 2014 to 2021 to be 1113.25 Tg, which is higher than GFED4s' carbon emissions in the same time period. This shows that the use of high-resolution (30 m) burned area products to estimate carbon emissions can effectively avoid the underestimation of overall fire carbon emissions.