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Description

The MCD64A1 Version 6 data product was decommissioned on July 31, 2023. Users are encouraged to use the MCD64A1 Version 6.1 data product.

The Terra and Aqua combined MCD64A1 Version 6 Burned Area data product is a monthly, global gridded 500 meter (m) product containing per-pixel burned-area and quality information. The MCD64A1 burned-area mapping approach employs 500 m Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Surface Reflectance imagery coupled with 1 kilometer (km) MODIS active fire observations. The algorithm uses a burn sensitive Vegetation Index (VI) to create dynamic thresholds that are applied to the composite data. The VI is derived from MODIS shortwave infrared atmospherically corrected surface reflectance bands 5 and 7 with a measure of temporal texture. The algorithm identifies the date of burn for the 500 m grid cells within each individual MODIS tile. The date is encoded in a single data layer as the ordinal day of the calendar year on which the burn occurred with values assigned to unburned land pixels and additional special values reserved for missing data and water grid cells.

The data layers provided in the MCD64A1 product include Burn Date, Burn Data Uncertainty, Quality Assurance, along with First Day and Last Day of reliable change detection of the year.

Known Issues

  • Known issues are described on the MODIS Land Quality Assessment website and in Section 8 of the User Guide which covers Cropland Burning, the August 2000 and June 2001 Data Outages, and the August 2020 Aqua Outage.

Version Description

The following changes and improvements were implemented for inputs to MODIS Version 6 burned area data products: (1) The product is now generated using an improved version of the MCD64 burned area mapping algorithm (Giglio et al., 2009), i.e., MCD64A1 will be adopted as the standard MODIS burned area product for Collection 6. The MCD45A1 product will not be generated beyond Collection 5.1, (2) The product is generated using Version 6 surface reflectance and active fire input data, (3) General improvement (reduced omission error) in burned area detection, including significantly better detection of small burns, (4) Modest reduction in burn-date temporal uncertainty, (5) Significant reduction in the occurrence of unclassified grid cells due to algorithm changes and refinements in the upstream Version 6 input data, (6) Product coverage expanded from 219 to 268 MODIS tiles, and (7) Expanded per-pixel Quality Assurance (QA) product layer.

Product Summary

Platforms
Terra ,
Aqua
Instruments
MODIS
Projects
TERRA ,
Aqua
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
500 Meters x 500 Meters
Spatial Reference System(s)
MODIS Sinusoidal Tiling System
Location
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2000-11-01 to 2022-12-31
Temporal Resolution
1 Month
Data Partner
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) ,
MODIS Adaptive Processing System, Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/MODAPS)
Concept ID
C2763297163-LPCLOUD
Data State
DEPRECATED
Number of Files/Granules
0
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Fire Ecology ,
Biomass Burning ,
Wildfires ,
Fire Occurrence

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Giglio, L., Justice, C., Boschetti, L., & Roy, D. (2015). MCD64A1 MODIS/Terra+Aqua Burned Area Monthly L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V006 [Dataset]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD64A1.006 Date Accessed: 2026-07-06

File Naming Convention

MCD64A1.A2002244.h11v12.006.2017013095459.hdf

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MCD64A1) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2002244), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h11v12), the Version of the data collection (006), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2017013095459), and the Data Format (hdf).

Documents

Publications Citing This Dataset

Filters
Title Year Author Topic
Patterns of post-drought recovery are strongly influenced by drought duration, frequency, post-drought wetness, and bioclimatic setting Jiao, Tong, Williams, Christopher A., De Kauwe, Martin G., Schwalm, Christopher R., Medlyn, Belinda E. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Post-Soviet shifts in grazing and fire regimes changed the functional plant community composition on the Eurasian steppe Freitag, Martin, Kamp, Johannes, Dara, Andrey, Kuemmerle, Tobias, Sidorova, Tatyana V., Stirnemann, Ingrid A., Velbert, Frederike, Holzel, Norbert Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Potential and challenges of harmonizing 40 years of AVHRR dataThe timeline experience Dech, Stefan, Holzwarth, Stefanie, Asam, Sarah, Andresen, Thorsten, Bachmann, Martin, Boettcher, Martin, Dietz, Andreas, Eisfelder, Christina, Frey, Corinne, Gesell, Gerhard, Gessner, Ursula, Hirner, Andreas, Hofmann, Matthias, Kirches, Grit, Klein, Doris, Klein, Igor, Kraus, Tanja, Krause, Detmar, Plank, Simon, Popp, Thomas, Reinermann, Sophie, Reiners, Philipp, Roessler, Sebastian, Ruppert, Thomas, Scherbachenko, Alexander, Vignesh, Ranjitha, Wolfmueller, Meinhard, Zwenzner, Hendrik, Kuenzer, Claudia Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Prescribed burning reduces large, high-intensity wildfires and emissions in the brazilian savanna Santos, Filippe L.M., Nogueira, Joana, Souza, Rodrigo A. F. de, Falleiro, Rodrigo M., Schmidt, Isabel B., Libonati, Renata Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Recent trends in the fire dynamics in Brazilian Legal Amazon: Interaction between the ENSO phenomenon, climate and land use Ferreira Barbosa, Maria Lucia, Delgado, Rafael Coll, Forsad de Andrade, Caio, Teodoro, Paulo Eduardo, Silva Junior, Carlos Antonio, Wanderley, Henderson Silva, Capristo-Silva, Guilherme Fernando Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
MOSEV: A global burn severity database from MODIS (2000-2020) Alonso-Gonzalez, Esteban, Fernandez-Garcia, Victor Reflectance, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
NMDI application for monitoring different vegetation covers in the Atlantic Forest biome, Brazil Oliveira Santos, Raquel de, Delgado, Rafael Coll, Vilanova, Regiane Souza, Santana, Romario Oliveira de, Andrade, Caio Frossard de, Teodoro, Paulo Eduardo, Silva Junior, Carlos Antonio, Capristo-Silva, Guilherme Fernando, Lima, Mendelson Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity
The 2019-2020 Australian Drought and Bushfires Altered the Partitioning Kumar, Sujay V., Holmes, Thomas, Andela, Niels, Dharssi, Imtiaz, Vinodkumar, Hain, Christopher, PetersLidard, Christa, Mahanama, Sarith P., Arsenault, Kristi R., Nie, Wanshu, Getirana, Augusto Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Temporal record and spatial distribution of fire foci in State of Minas Gerais, Brazil Marinho, Ana Aguiar Real, Gois, Givanildo de, Oliveira-Junior, Jose Francisco de, Correia Filho, Washington Luiz Felix, Santiago, Dimas de Barros, Silva Junior, Carlos Antonio da, Teodoro, Paulo Eduardo, de Souza, Amaury, Capristo-Silva, Guilherme Fernando, Freitas, Welington Kiffer de, Rogerio, Josiclea Pereira Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Emissivity, Land Surface Temperature, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Spatio-temporal analysis of burning areas in the state of maranhao based on modis images and random forest classification Pacheco, Admilson Da Penha, Da Silva Junior, Juarez Antonio Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Structural diversity and tree density drives variation in the Godlee, John L., Ryan, Casey M., Bauman, David, Bowers, Samuel J., Carreiras, Joao M. B., Chisingui, Antonio Valter, Cromsigt, Joris P. G. M., Druce, Dave J., Finckh, Manfred, Goncalves, Francisco Maiato, Holdo, Ricardo M., Makungwa, Steve, McNicol, Iain M., Mitchard, Edward T. A., Muchawona, Anderson, Revermann, Rasmus, Ribeiro, Natasha Sofia, Siampale, Abel, Syampungani, Stephen, Tchamba, Jose Joao, Tripathi, Hemant G., Wallenfang, Johannes, te Beest, Mariska, Williams, Mathew, Dexter, Kyle G. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Spring fires in RussiaResults from participatory burned area mapping with Sentinel-2 imagery Glushkov, Igor, Zhuravleva, Ilona, McCarty, Jessica L, Komarova, Anna, Drozdovsky, Alexey, Drozdovskaya, Marina, Lupachik, Vilen, Yaroshenko, Alexey, Stehman, Stephen V, Prishchepov, Alexander V Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Study on blazing wildfires at the outeniqua pass in South Africa during the october/november 2018 period Kganyago, Mahlatse, Govender, Kogieluxmie, Shikwambana, Lerato, Sivakumar, Venkataraman Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Spatiotemporal variation of the burned area and its relationship with climatic factors in central kazakhstan Xu, Yongfang, Lin, Zhaohui, Wu, Chenglai Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Spatiotemporal variations and uncertainty in crop residue burning emissions over north china plainImplication for atmospheric co2 simulation Fu, Yu, Gao, Hao, Liao, Hong, Tian, Xiangjun Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Savanna plant communities in the wetter parts of the Indonesian archipelago Sutomo, van Etten, Eddie Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Short communicationSavanna-forest boundary on mount rinjani, lombok island, west nusa tenggara, indonesia SUTOMO, Sutomo, Van Etten, Eddie, Iryadi, Rajif Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Sensitivity of spectral indices on burned area detection using landsat time series in savannas of southern Burkina Faso Liu, Jinxiu, Maeda, Eduardo Eiji, Wang, Du, Heiskanen, Janne Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Spatio-temporal dynamics of burnt areas in federal protected areas in the south-east of european russia Shinkarenko, Stanislav S., Ivanov, Nikita M., Berdengalieva, Asel N. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Spatiotemporal patterns of burned areas, fire drivers, and fire probability across the equatorial Andes Zapata-Rios, Xavier, Lopez-Fabara, Carmen, Navarrete, Abigail, Torres-Paguay, Sandra, Flores, Miguel Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity
Spatio-temporal patterns of wildfires in Siberia during 2001-2020 Tomshin, Oleg, Solovyev, Vladimir Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Using remotely sensed indicators of primary productivity to improve prioritization of conservation areas for top predators Regos, Adrian, Arenas-Castro, Salvador, Tapia, Luis, Dominguez, Jesus, Honrado, Joao P. Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Validation of MCD64A1 and FireCCI51 cropland burned area mapping in Ukraine Hall, Joanne V., Argueta, Fernanda, Giglio, Louis Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Utilization of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Imagery for Improving Burnt Area Mapping Accuracy Nolde, Michael, Plank, Simon, Riedlinger, Torsten Fire Occurrence, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Reflectance, Burned Area
Uav assisted spatiotemporal analysis and management of bushfires: A case study of the 2020 victorian bushfires Munawar, Hafiz Suliman, Ullah, Fahim, Khan, Sara Imran, Qadir, Zakria, Qayyum, Siddra Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES, Reflectance
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