Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 2.1

Overview

Description

This data set consists of 1 degree x 1 degree gridded monthly burned area, fuel loads, combustion completeness, and fire emissions of carbon (C), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), molecular hydrogen (H2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), nitrous oxide (N2O), particulate matter (PM2.5), total particulate matter (TPM), total carbon (TC), organic carbon (OC), and black carbon (BC) for the time period January 1997 through December 2005. Emission estimates for the 2001-2005 period are also available with an 8-day time step. The data set was compiled using satellite data and the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (CASA) biogeochemical model. Burned area from 2001-2004 was derived from active fire and 500-m burned area data from MODIS (Giglio et al., 2006). ATSR (Along Track Scanning Radiometer) and VIRS (Visible and Infrared Scanner) satellite data were used to extend the burned area time series back to 1997 (Arino et al., 1999; Giglio et al., 2003; Van der Werf et al., 2004). Fuel loads and net flux from terrestrial ecosystems were estimated as the balance between net primary production, heterotrophic respiration, and biomass burning, using time varying inputs of precipitation, temperature, solar radiation, and satellite-derived fractional absorbed photosynthetically active radiation. Tropical and boreal peatland emissions were also considered, using a global wetland cover map (Matthews and Fung, 1987) to modify surface and belowground fuel availability. The data set also includes monthly estimates of the C4 fraction of carbon emissions that can be used to construct the 13C isotope ratio (Randerson et al., 2005).The data files are in space delimited ASCII format. For each subject (e.g., burned area, fuel loads, combustion completeness, or individual fire emission species), all monthly files for the 9-year period are combined in one zipped file. Similarly, the emission estimates with an 8-day time step for the 2001-2005 period are combined in one zipped file by subject.Additional information about the methodology, data format, and parameters measured is found in the companion file: ftp://daac.ornl.gov/data/global_vegetation/fire_emission_v2/comp/global_fire_emissions_v2_1_readme.pdf. Version 2.1 Note: This data set is intended for use for large-scale modeling studies. It supersedes and replaces the Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 2 (GFEDv2) which was archived by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center in 2006.

Science Keywords

Data Use and Citation

Data Files

Version History