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Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 4.1 (GFEDv4)

Documentation Revision Date: 2018-02-14

Data Set Version: 4.1

Summary

This dataset provides global estimates of monthly burned area, monthly emissions and fractional contributions of different fire types, daily or 3-hourly fields to scale the monthly emissions to higher temporal resolutions, and data for monthly biosphere fluxes. The data are at 0.25-degree latitude by 0.25-degree longitude spatial resolution and are available from June 1995 through 2016, depending on the dataset. Emissions data are available for carbon (C), dry matter (DM), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), hydrogen (H2), nitrous oxide (N2O), nitrogen oxides (NOx), non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), organic carbon (OC), black carbon (BC), particulate matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), total particulate matter (TPM), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) among others. These data are yearly totals by region, globally, and by fire source for each region.

This Version 4, R1 dataset includes data described as GFED4 and GFED4.1s from the data provider. GFED4 data are without small fire inputs and are in HDF format. The GFED4.1s data include small fires and are provided in HDF5 format. The mapped burned area is without small fires and this is the GFED4 burned area described in Giglio et al. (2013). The emissions fields are based on this dataset but boosted with small fires, GFED4.1s. The emissions fields also contain a layer with the fraction of emissions resulting from this boost. Additional information may be obtained from the Global Fire Data website: http://www.globalfiredata.org/index.html.

The dataset is divided into the following main datasets.  Data products include:

1. Monthly and Daily Burned Area (GFED4 - without small fires)

  • Global monthly burned area (ha) at 0.25-degree x 0.25-degree for 1997 to 2016 in HDF (.hdf) format (GFED4). 
  • Global daily burned area for a subset of the time series from Aug 2000 to 2015 in HDF (.hdf) format (GFED4).

2. Emissions (monthly, daily, 3-hourly) and burned area (GFED4s - with small fires)

  • Annual files with monthly GFED4s burned area (including small fires), emissions, and scalars to distribute the monthly emissions over the days as well as the diurnal cycle as HDF5 (.hdf5) format (GFED4s) for the time period 1997 to 2015.  These files contain fire carbon emissions (g C m-2 month-1) and dry matter emissions (kg DM m-2 month-1).  In addition, fractional contributions of different fire types (grassland and savanna, woodland, deforestation and degradation, forest, agricultural waste burning, and peat fires) are provided within each file. The CASA-GFED biosphere flux sources include Net Primary Production (NPP), heterotrophic respiration (Rh), and fires (biomass burning).  Rh has been updated for all years in this distribution due to a correction in only the Rh values.  Available for years 2003 onward are daily / 3-hourly emissions which are scalar fields that can be used in combination with monthly emissions files to estimate emissions on a higher temporal resolution.
  • Regional estimates for various trace gases and aerosol emissions are provided, in text format, that contain annual emissions (1997 - 2016) per region for totals of C and individual species from all sources, yearly lumped sources such as higher alkanes, higher alkenes, and toluenes, and from each individual fire source (forest fires, peat fires, agricultural waste burning, etc). These files are for indicative use only; they are not suitable for official reporting due to large uncertainties and  the potential for aspects of information from key regions to be missing in the global approach used.  There are 41 text files.
  • Related files include emission factors (EF) data for individual species by biome (fire source) in comma-separated (.csv) format. There are 2 csv files.

There are a total of 5,952 files with this dataset. The data are in text, HDF5, and HDF formats as described above.

Version 4, R1 Note: This dataset is intended for use for large-scale modeling studies. It supersedes and replaces the Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 4 (GFEDv4) which was archived by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center in 2015.

Figure 1. Annual carbon emissions from fires (as g C/m2/year) averaged over 1997 to 2014.

Citation

Randerson, J.T., G.R. van der Werf, L. Giglio, G.J. Collatz, and P.S. Kasibhatla. 2018. Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 4.1 (GFEDv4). ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1293

Table of Contents

  1. Data Set Overview
  2. Data Characteristics
  3. Application and Derivation
  4. Quality Assessment
  5. Data Acquisition, Materials, and Methods
  6. Data Access
  7. References
  8. Data Set Revisions

Data Set Overview

This dataset provides global estimates of burned area, monthly emissions and fractional contributions of different fire types, daily/3-hourly fields to scale the monthly emissions to higher temporal resolutions, and data for monthly biosphere fluxes. The data are at 0.25-degree latitude by 0.25-degree longitude spatial resolution and are available from July 1997 through 2016 depending on the individual dataset.

Also included with this dataset are data from small fires referred to as GFED4.1s data on the GFED website http://www.globalfiredata.org/index.html. GFED4 data are without small fires in HDF format; the GFED4.1s data (data which includes small fires) are provided in HDF5 format. The mapped burned area is without small fires and this is the GFED4 burned area described in Giglio et al. (2013). The emissions fields are based on this dataset but boosted with small fires, GFED4.1s. The emissions fields also contain a layer with the fraction of emissions resulting from this boost. Additional information may be obtained from the Global Fire Data website: http://www.globalfiredata.org/index.html.

Emissions data are available for carbon (C), dry matter (DM), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), hydrogen (H2), nitrous oxide (N2O), nitrogen oxides (NOx), non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), organic carbon (OC), black carbon (BC), particulate matter less than 2.5 micron (PM2.5), total particulate matter (TPM), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) among others. These data are yearly totals by region, globally, and by fire source for each region.

Related datasets:

  • Veraverbeke, S., B.M. Rogers, and J.T. Randerson. 2015. CARVE: Alaskan Fire Emissions Database (AKFED), 2001-2013. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1282

Release and Update Notes:

A full revision history for the GFED data is provided in section 8 of this document.

This dataset revision (Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 4 (GFEDv4), R1) includes updates to all files that are available from the GFED community.  In particular, it includes monthly burned areas without small files for 2016 and 2015-03 through 2015-12 and the daily burned areas without small fires for 2015 and 2000-2012, which were not part of the previous ORNL DAAC data distribution. Because of a small correction in respiration values, all files for emissions with small fires have been replaced for years 1997-2014 and the 2015 year has been added.  Files for regional estimates for various trace gases and aerosol emissions, in text format, have been updated with a column for 2016.

Data Characteristics

Spatial Coverage

The study area covers the following 14 regions: Boreal, Temperate, and Central America, Northern and Southern Hemisphere South America, Europe, Middle East, Northern and Southern Hemisphere Africa, Boreal, Central, Southeast, and Equatorial Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The upper left corner of each file is centered at 179.875 W, 89.875 N and the lower right corner at 179.875 E, 89.875 S.

Spatial Resolution

The data are gridded at 0.25-degree latitude by 0.25-degree longitude.

Temporal Coverage

Annual data and emissions estimates are for the years 1997- 2016.

Monthly data for the period 1995-06 to 2016-12.

Daily/3-hourly data are available for 2000 - 2015.  Daily data for year 2000 start on yearday 214 - 366.  All other years have a complete record. Daily data include leap day resulting in 1 - 366 year days.

Temporal Resolution

Most data are monthly.

Study Area: (All latitude and longitude given in decimal degrees (datum: WGS84))

Site Westernmost Longitude Easternmost Longitude Northernmost Latitude Southernmost Latitude Geodetic Datum
Global -180 180 90 -90 WGS-84

 

Data File Information

Data are available from 1995 through 2016 depending on the dataset. Each data file contains 1,440 columns and 720 rows and has a 0.25-degree latitude by 0.25-degree longitude spatial resolution.

Data Dictionary

Annual Files: These files are the GFED4.1s data and include the small fire boost. The files provide data for each month, for each year, 1997-2015. There are 19 annual files in hdf5 (.hdf5) format.

The data are grouped under (1) ancillary, (2) biosphere, (3) burned area, (4) emissions, (5) latitude, and (6) longitude.

The files are named GFED4.1s_YYYY.hdf5

 where:   YYYY= 1997 to 2015.

Groups and Variables:

(1) Ancillary: provides information on the names of the 14 regions and grid cell area for the data.

(2) Biosphere: provides monthly biosphere fluxes each month of the year. Units are in g C/m2/month.

Variables: (based on the CASA-GFED4s framework):

  • BB: biomass burning C emissions
  • NPP: Net Primary Production (NPP)
  • Rh: Heterotrophic respiration (Rh)

(3) Burned Area

Variables:

  • burned_fraction: The fraction of each grid cell that burned in that month according to the GFED4 burned area data; includes an experimental small fire estimate.
  • source: Source of GFED4.1s burned area estimate; includes an experimental small fire estimate. Data are from 500-m MODIS product MCD64A1 after 2001. Before 2001, ATSR and VIRS data were used.

(4) Emissions: data files are for each month of each individual year, and daily emissions for individual species and for individual species partitioned by specific sources (grassland and savanna, woodland, deforestation & degradation, forest, agricultural waste burning, and peat fires).

Variables:

  • C: Biomass burning C emissions. Units are provided in g C/m2/month.
  • daily fraction: The fraction of total emissions that were emitted in the different days of the month. These data are available for 2003-2015. Data are unitless ranging from 0 to 1
  • diurnal cycle: The partitioning of the daily emissions over eight three-hour windows (UTC). These data are available for 2003-2015 and based on GOES data. Data are unitless ranging from 0 to 1 and include:
    UTC_XXX where XXX= 0-3h, 12-15h, 15-18h, 18-21h, 21-24h, 3-6h, 6-9h, and 9-12h.
  • DM: GFED4.1s biomass burning dry matter emissions. Units are provided in kg DM/m2/month.
  • partitioning: includes the contribution of fire sources to the total monthly burning carbon emissions (C_) and to monthly biomass burning dry matter emissions (DM_).
        Data are grouped as C_fire source, as provided below, or DM_fire source, for the same fire sources. Data are unitless.
        Fire sources include:
         C_AGRI: Agricultural waste burning
         C-BORF: Boreal forest fires
         C_DEFO: Tropical forest fires
         C_SAVA:Savanna, grassland, and shrubland fires
         C_TEMF: Temperate forest fires

  • small fire fraction: Fraction of total monthly GFED4.1s biomass burning emissions originating from small fire burned area. Data are unitless.

(5) lat: Latitude of data in degrees N

(6) lon: Longitude of data in degrees E 

 

Daily Files: These files are the GFED4.0 version, without small fires. The data are estimates of burned area (BA) in hectares (ha) and for burned area uncertainty (BurnedAreaUncertainty). There are 365 hourly files for 2001 - 2015; one for each day of the year.  For year 2000, the year days range from 214 - 366.

The daily files are named GFED4.0_DQ_YYYYXXX_BA.hdf

where:   DQ=daily;  YYYY= 2000 - 2015;

XXX = 001-365 (for each day of the year, 1-365.  Leap year includes yearday 366);

and BA = Burned area.

Example file name: GFED4.0_DQ_2013001_BA.hdf

Variables:

  • BurnedArea: units are in hectares (ha)
  • BurnedAreaUncertainty: units are in hectares (ha)
  • LandCoverDist: UMD land cover distribution of burned area; units are in percent. See the monthly files below for the landcover classes.
  • MeanBurnDateUncertainty: units are in days
  • PeatFraction: units are in percent.
  • source: source of burned area estimate; unitless
  • TreeCoverDist: fractional tree cover distribution of burned area; units are in percent.

 

Monthly Files: These files are the GFED4.0 version, without small fires. These files contain gridded, 0.25 degree x 0.25 degree, estimates for monthly burned area (BA) in hectares (ha) and for burned area uncertainty (BurnedAreaUncertainty). There are 259 monthly files in .hdf format for the period 1995-06 to 2016-12 (one file for each month).

The files are named GFED4.0_MQ_YYYYMM_BA.hdf

where:   MQ = indicates a monthly file;

 YYYY=1995 - 2016 (note: there are only seven files for 1995, June-December); and

 BA = burned area.

Example file name: GFED4.0_MQ_199506_BA.hdf

Variables:

  • BurnedArea: monthly burned area. Units are in hectares.
  • BurnedAreaUncertainty: monthly burned area uncertainty. Units are in hectares.
  • FirePersistence: monthly fire persistence. Units are in days.
  • PeatFraction: units are in percent
  • source:  source of burned area estimate: data are unitless
  • TreeCoverDist: fractional tree cover distribution of burned area: units are in percent  
  • LandCoverDist: UMD land cover distribution of burned area: units are in percent.

Land cover classes:

Class Description
class_0 water
class_1 evergreen needleleaf forest
class_2 evergreen broadleaf forest
class_3 deciduous needleleaf forest
class_4 deciduous broadleaf forest
class_5 mixed forests
class_6 closed shrublands
class_7 open shrubland
class_8 woody savannas
class_9 savannas
class_10 grasslands
class_11 UNUSED
class_12 croplands
class_13 urban and built-up
class_14 UNUSED
class_15 UNUSED
class_16 barren or sparsely vegetated
class_17 unclassified

 

Emissions Estimates

These data are GFED 4.1s data. Emissions estimates are provided for 41 species (41 .txt files) for each year for 1997-2016, for the individual regions, global, different fire types, and all fire types combined provided as text files (.txt). The units are in g species/yr, for example, g CH4/yr.

Example file name: GFED4.1s_CH3COCHO.txt

Files are named GFED4.1s_species.txt where the species is one of the following:

C H2 BC C2H4 HCOOHC2H2 Higher alkanes
C2H6 C2H5OH N2O C2H4O CH3COOH Higher alkenes
NH3 C2H6S NMHC C3H6 NOX OC (organic carbon)
C3H6O C3H8 C6H6 C5H8 SO2 PM2.5 (Particle matter 2.5 micron emissions)
CH2O C7H8 C8H10 C10H16 CH3COCHO Toluene lump
HCN CH3OH HCOOH CH4 HOCH2CHO MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone / 2-butanone)
CO2 CO DM C2H2 TPC (total particulate matter)  

 

GFED4_Emission_Factors_Summary.csv

This file provides a summary of the emission factors (EF) for 39 species and lumped groups of species (g Specie per kg Dry Matter burned) by biome based on the compilations of Akagi et al., 2011, Andreae and Merlet (2001), Yokelson et al., 1997, and Christian et al., 2003.

 

GFED4_Emission_Factors.csv

This file provides the EFs and uncertainties for the 39 species and lumped groups, EFs provided by biome, and EFs by biome from the four specific data sources listed above.

Application and Derivation

The GFED4 data were derived by combining 500-m MODIS burned area maps with active fire data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) and the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) family of sensors. Satellite information on fire activity and vegetation productivity were combined to estimate gridded monthly burned area, fire emissions and scalars that can be used to calculate higher temporal resolution emissions. Before 2001, ATSR and VIRS data were used.

This dataset is intended for use for large-scale modeling studies.

Quality Assessment

Annual emissions per region for totals of C and individual species from all sources, yearly lumped sources such as higher alkanes, higher alkenes, and toluene lump, and from each individual fire source (forest fires, peat fires, agricultural waste burning, etc). These files are for indicative use only; they are not suitable for official reporting due to large uncertainties and potential for key regional aspects to be missing in the global approach used.

Data Acquisition, Materials, and Methods

Data Sources

Satellite information on fire activity and vegetation productivity were combined to estimate gridded monthly burned area, fire emissions and scalars that can be used to calculate higher temporal resolution emissions.

Data sources used in this dataset:

  • Burned area from Giglio et al. (2013)
  • Burned area from small fires based on active fire detections outside the burned area maps detailed in Randerson et al. (2012)
  • Carbon and dry matter emissions, revised version of van der Werf et al. (2010), manuscript currently in preparation
  • Fractional contributions of various fire types to total emissions
  • List of emission factors to compute trace gas and aerosol emissions based on Akagi et al. (2011) as well as Andreae and Merlet (2001) with updates provided in 2013 by M.O. Andreae

Burned Area (Monthly data files; the mapped burned area is without small fires, this is the GFED4 burned area described in Giglio et al. (2013))

GFED4 burned area data provides global monthly burned area at 0.25 degree spatial resolution from mid-1995 through the present and daily burned area for the time series extending back to August 2000. The data were derived by combining 500-m MODIS burned area maps with active fire data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) and the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) family of sensors. For additional information, refer to Giglio et al., 2013.

Burned area from small fires (based on active fire detections outside the burned area maps (included in the Annual data files))

Many small fires occur each year that are well below the detection limit of the current generation of global burned area products derived from moderate resolution surface reflectance imagery. Although these fires often generate thermal anomalies that can be detected by satellites, their contributions to burned area and carbon fluxes have not been systematically quantified across different regions and continents. One km thermal anomalies (active fires) and 500-m burned area observations from MODIS were combined to estimate the influence of small fires. The number of active fires inside and outside of 500-m burn scars derived from reflectance data were calculated. Small fire burned area was estimated by computing the difference normalized burn ratio (dNBR) for these two sets of active fires and then combining these observations with other information. In a final step, the Global Fire Emissions Database version 3 (GFED3) biogeochemical model was used to estimate the impact of these fires on biomass burning emissions (Randerson et al., 2012).

Figure 2. Annual burned area (as percentage of the area of the grid cell), averaged over 1997-2014.

Emissions-monthly, daily, 3-hourly (included in the Annual data files)

Annual files with monthly GFED4.1s burned area (including small fires), emissions, and scalars to distribute the monthly emissions over the days as well as the diurnal cycle are provided as HDF5 files. The HDF5 files include fire carbon emissions (g C m-2 month-1) and dry matter emissions (kg DM m-2 month-1). In addition, fractional contributions of different fire types can be used in combination with recommended emission factors provided (g species per kg dry matter burned) to calculate specific trace gas and aerosol emissions.

Emission estimates were derived by combining burned area data with a revised version of the  biogeochemical model, Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (CASA-GFED), that estimates fuel loads and combustion completeness for each monthly time step. For November 2000 onwards, estimates were based on burned area, active fire detections, and plant productivity. Refer to van der Werf et al., 2010 for more detailed information.

The daily and 3-hourly time series were derived by the disaggregation of the monthly MODIS data, and in parallel, mean diurnal cycles were constructed from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WF_ABBA) active fire observations. Refer to Mu et al., 2010, for more detailed information. These scalar fields can be used in combination with monthly emissions files to estimate emissions on a higher temporal resolution. These are only available for the 2003 onwards.

Ancillary data (included in the Annual data files)

Biosphere fluxes: The CASA-GFED biosphere fluxes include NPP, Rh, and fires (BB). Units are in g C m-2 month-1. CO2 is not included and nitrogen fertilization and is spun up to almost neutral conditions.

Annual Emissions by Country

Annual emissions per region are provided for totals of C and individual species from all sources, yearly lumped sources such as higher alkanes, higher alkenes, and toluene lump, and from each individual fire source (forest fires, peat fires, agricultural waste burning, etc.). These files are for indicative use only; they are not suitable for official reporting due to large uncertainties and potential for missing key regional aspects in the global approach used. Links to tables with annual emission estimates for the various trace gas and emissions sources identified in the basis regions (Fig. 3) are provided on the Global Fire Data website.

Figure 3. Basis regions.

For additional information such as how to read the hdf5 files, how to compute trace gas, or aerosol emissions, additional figures, etc., refer to the Global Fire Data website: http://www.globalfiredata.org/index.html.

 

Data Access

These data are available through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 4.1 (GFEDv4)

Contact for Data Center Access Information:

References

Akagi, S. K., Yokelson, R. J., Wiedinmyer, C., Alvarado, M. J., Reid, J. S., Karl, T., Crounse, J. D., and Wennberg, P. O.: Emission factors for open and domestic biomass burning for use in atmospheric models, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 4039-4072 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-4039-2011, 2011.

Andreae, M. O. and P. Merlet. 2001. Emission of trace gases and aerosols from biomass burning. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 15: 955-966, 2000GB001382.

Arino, O., J.-M. Rosaz, and P. Goloub. 1999. The ATSR World Fire Atlas. A synergy with 'Polder' aerosol products. Earth Observation Quarterly, 1-6.

Christian, T. J., B. Kleiss, R. J. Yokelson, R. Holzinger, P. J. Crutzen, W. M. Hao, B. H. Saharjo, and D. E. Ward, Comprehensive laboratory measurements of biomass-burning emissions: 1. Emissions from Indonesian, African, and other fuels, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D23), 4719 https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JD003704, 2003.

Giglio, L., J. T. Randerson, and G. R. van der Werf, Analysis of daily, monthly, and annual burned area using the fourth-generation global fire emissions database (GFED4), Journal Of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 118, 317–328 https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrg.20042, 2013.

Giglio, L., Randerson, J. T., van der Werf, G. R., Kasibhatla, P. S., Collatz, G. J., Morton, D. C., and DeFries, R. S.: Assessing variability and long-term trends in burned area by merging multiple satellite fire products, Biogeosciences, 7, 1171-1186 https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-7-1171-2010, 2010.

Giglio, L., J. D. Kendall, and R. Mack. 2003. A multi-year active fire dataset for the tropics derived from the TRMM VIRS. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 24: 4505-4525.

Giglio, L., G. R. van der Werf, J. T. Randerson, G. J. Collatz, and P. Kasibhatla. 2006. Global estimation of burned area using MODIS active fire observations. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6: 957-974.

Matthews, E. and I. Fung. 1987. Methane emission from natural wetlands: Global area, distribution and environmental characteristics of sources. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 1; 61-86.

Mu, M., J.T. Randerson, G.R. van der Werf, L. Giglio, P. Kasibhatla, D. Morton, G.J. Collatz, R.S. DeFries, E.J. Hyer, E.M. Prins, D.W.T. Griffith, D. Wunch, G.C. Toon, V. Sherlock, and P.O. Wennberg. 2010. Daily and 3-hourly variability in global fire emissions and consequences for atmospheric model predictions of carbon monoxide. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres.116: D24303 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JD016245

J. T. Randerson, Y. Chen, G. R. van der Werf, B. M. Rogers and D. C. Morton. 2012. Global burned area and biomass burning emissions from small fires, J. Geophys. Res., 117, G04012 https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JG002128

Randerson, J. T., G. R. van der Werf, L. Giglio, G. J. Collatz, and P. S. Kasibhatla. 2007. Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 2 (GFEDv2.1). ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/849.

Randerson, J. T., G. R. van der Werf, G .J. Collatz, L. Giglio, C. J. Still, P. Kasibhatla, J. B. Miller, J. W. C. White, R. S. DeFries, and E. S. Kasischke. 2005. Fire emissions from C3 and C4 vegetation and their influence on interannual variability of atmospheric CO2 and d13CO2. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. 19: GB2019 https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GB002366.

van der Werf, G. R., Randerson, J. T., Giglio, L., van Leeuwen, T. T., Chen, Y., Rogers, B. M., Mu, M., van Marle, M. J. E., Morton, D. C., Collatz, G. J., Yokelson, R. J., and Kasibhatla, P. S. 2017. Global fire emissions estimates during 1997–2015, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2016-62, in review

van der Werf, G. R., Randerson, J. T., Giglio, L., Collatz, G. J., Mu, M., Kasibhatla, P. S., Morton, D. C., DeFries, R. S., Jin, Y., and van Leeuwen, T. T. 2010. Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural, and peat fires (1997–2009), Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 11707-11735 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-10-11707-2010

van der Werf, G. R., J. T. Randerson, G. J. Collatz, L. Giglio, P. S. Kasibhatla, A. Avelino, S. C. Olsen, and E.S. Kasischke. 2004. Continental-scale partitioning of fire emissions during the 1997-2001 El Nino / La Nina period. Science, 303: 73-76.

van der Werf, G. R., J. T. Randerson, L.Giglio, G. J. Collatz, and P. S. Kasibhatla. 2006. Interannual variability in global biomass burning emission from 1997 to 2004, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 6, 3423-3441. S Ref-ID: 1680-7324/acp/2006-6-3423.

Yokelson, R. J., D. E. Ward, R. A. Susott, J. Reardon, and D. W. T. Griffith, Emissions from smoldering combustion of biomass measured by openpath Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 18,865– 18,877, 1997.

Data Set Revisions

Updates to this dataset will be made periodically. Please contact ORNL DAAC User Services so that we can add you to our e-mail distribution list for update notices.

Date Release and Update History ORNL DAAC Notes
December 21, 2005 GFED Release 1  
December 21, 2005 ORNL DAAC Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 1 (GFEDv1) Initial release archived
  GFED Release 2  
May 31, 2006 Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 2 (GFEDv2) Superseded and replaced v1
June 23, 2006  GFED updated the burned fraction (BF), combustion completeness (CC), and fuel load (FL) files  
November 27, 2006 GFED added files for the year 2005 and added emission files with an 8 day time step for the 2001 – 2005 period  
March 30, 2007 Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 2 (GFEDv2.1) Incorporates 2006 changes and additions and supersedes and replaces v2
September 30, 2013 Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 3 (GFEDv3.1) Incorporates changes to spatial resolutions and data additions, and supersedes and replaces v2.1
September 2015 Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 4 (GFEDv4) Incorporates changes to spatial resolutions and data additions, and supersedes and replaces v3.1

September 2017

Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 4.1 (GFEDv4) Incorporates updates to temporal resolution.  Addendum to the September 2015 release. All annual files have been updated with files that contain corrected Rh values.