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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: 2026-07-07

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
A multi-scale assessment of fire scar mapping in the Great Victoria Desert of Western Australia Ruscalleda-Alvarez, Jaume, Moro, Dorian, van Dongen, Richard Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Assessment of k-Nearest Neighbor and Random Forest Classifiers for Pacheco, Admilson da Penha, Junior, Juarez Antonio da Silva, Ruiz-Armenteros, Antonio Miguel, Henriques, Renato Filipe Faria Reflectance, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, REFLECTED INFRARED, THERMAL INFRARED, VISIBLE IMAGERY, Visible Radiance
Assessment of Wildfire Activity Development Trends for Eastern Australia Using Multi-Sensor Earth Observation Data Nolde, Michael, Mueller, Norman, Strunz, Gunter, Riedlinger, Torsten Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Reflectance, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES
Assessing the accuracy of remotely sensed fire datasets across the southwestern Mediterranean Basin Galizia, Luiz Felipe, Curt, Thomas, Barbero, Renaud, Rodrigues, Marcos Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Carbonaceous Aerosols, Nitrogen Oxides, Particulates, Hydrogen Cyanide, Emissions, Non-methane Hydrocarbons/Volatile Organic Compounds, Particulate Matter, Nitrogen Oxides, Sulfur Dioxide, Carbon And Hydrocarbon Compounds, Fire Dynamics
An alternative approach for mapping burn scars using Landsat imagery, Google Earth Engine, and Deep Learning in the Brazilian Savanna Arruda, Vera L.S., Piontekowski, Valderli J., Alencar, Ane, Pereira, Reginaldo S., Matricardi, Eraldo A.T. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
CLASSIC v1.0: The open-source community successor to the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS) and the Canadian Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (CTEM) - Part 2: Global benchmarking Seiler, Christian, Melton, Joe R., Arora, Vivek K., Wang, Libo Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Reflectance, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Carbon, Cation Exchange Capacity, Organic Matter, Burned Area, Albedo, Anisotropy
Changes in biomass burning, wetland extent, or agriculture drive Hickman, Jonathan E., Andela, Niels, Dammers, Enrico, Clarisse, Lieven, Coheur, Pierre-Francois, Van Damme, Martin, Di Vittorio, Courtney A., Ossohou, Money, Galy-Lacaux, Corinne, Tsigaridis, Kostas, Bauer, Susanne E. Total Surface Precipitation Rate, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Changes in global terrestrial live biomass over the 21st century Xu, Liang, Saatchi, Sassan S., Yang, Yan, Yu, Yifan, Pongratz, Julia, Bloom, A. Anthony, Bowman, Kevin, Worden, John, Liu, Junjie, Yin, Yi, Domke, Grant, McRoberts, Ronald E., Woodall, Christopher, Nabuurs, Gert-Jan, de-Miguel, Sergio, Keller, Michael, Harris, Nancy, Maxwell, Sean, Schimel, David RADAR IMAGERY, Terrain Elevation, Topographical Relief Maps, Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Climate change and deforestation increase the vulnerability of Amazonian De Faria, Bruno L., Staal, Arie, Silva, Carlos A., Martin, Philip A., Panday, Prajjwal K., Dantas, Vinicius L. 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, Wetlands, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Inundation
Carbon loss from forest degradation exceeds that from deforestation in Qin, Yuanwei, Xiao, Xiangming, Wigneron, Jean-Pierre, Ciais, Philippe, Brandt, Martin, Fan, Lei, Li, Xiaojun, Crowell, Sean, Wu, Xiaocui, Doughty, Russell, Zhang, Yao, Liu, Fang, Sitch, Stephen, Moore, Berrien Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Total Surface Precipitation Rate
Can neural networks forecast open field burning of crop residue in regions with anthropogenic management and control? A case study in northeastern China Bai, Bing, Zhao, Hongmei, Zhang, Sumei, Zhang, Xuelei, Du, Yabin Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Forest Canopy Changes in the Southern Amazon during the 2019 Fire Season Zhang, Huixian, Hagan, Daniel Fiifi Tawia, Dalagnol, Ricardo, Liu, Yi Reflectance, Snow Grain Size, Snow Cover, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Precipitation, Precipitation Amount, Precipitation Rate, Snow, Rain, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Burned Area
Forest Fire Risk Prediction from Satellite Data with Convolutional Santopaolo, Alessandro, Saif, Syed Saad, Pietrabissa, Antonio, Giuseppi, Alessandro Land Surface Temperature, Fire Occurrence, Surface Thermal Properties, THERMAL ANOMALIES, Total Surface Precipitation Rate, Emissivity, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Burned Area, Terrain Elevation, RADAR IMAGERY, Topographical Relief Maps
Extreme fire weather is the major driver of severe bushfires in southeast Australia Wang, Bin, Spessa, Allan C., Feng, Puyu, Hou, Xin, Yue, Chao, Luo, Jing-Jia, Ciais, Philippe, Waters, Cathy, Cowie, Annette, Nolan, Rachael H., Nikonovas, Tadas, Jin, Huidong, Walshaw, Henry, Wei, Jinghua, Guo, Xiaowei, Liu, De Li, Yu, Qiang Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Anisotropy, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Fire regime impacts on postfire diurnal land surface temperature change over North American boreal forest Zhao, Jie, Wang, Liang, Hou, Xin, Li, Guangyao, Tian, Qi, Chan, Eme, Ciais, Philippe, Yu, Qiang, Yue, Chao Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Albedo, Anisotropy, Emissivity, Land Surface Temperature, Burned Area
Fire regimes, fire experiments and alternative stable states in mesic savannas Veenendaal, Elmar M., TorelloRaventos, Mireia, Miranda, Heloisa S., Sato, Naomi M., Janssen, Thomas A. J., van Langevelde, Frank, Lloyd, Jon Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Fire-derived phosphorus fertilization of African tropical forests Bauters, Marijn, Drake, Travis W., Wagner, Sasha, Baumgartner, Simon, Makelele, Isaac A., Bode, Samuel, Verheyen, Kris, Verbeeck, Hans, Ewango, Corneille, Cizungu, Landry, Van Oost, Kristof, Boeckx, Pascal Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Aerosols, Aerosol Extinction, Aerosol Optical Depth/Thickness, Angstrom Exponent, Aerosol Particle Properties, Carbonaceous Aerosols, Dust/Ash/Smoke, Organic Particles, Sulfate Particles, Sulfur Oxides, Sulfur Compounds, Sulfate, Sulfur Dioxide, Sulfur Oxides, Particulate Matter, Dimethyl Sulfide, Black Carbon, Sea Salt, PARTICULATE MATTER (PM 2.5), PARTICULATE MATTER (PM 1.0), PARTICULATE MATTER (PM 10)
Fire-induced loss of the world's most biodiverse forests in Latin America Armenteras, Dolors, Davalos, Liliana M., Barreto, Joan S., Miranda, Alejandro, Hernandez-Moreno, Angela, Zamorano-Elgueta, Carlos, Gonzalez-Delgado, Tania M., Meza-Elizalde, Maria C., Retana, Javier Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Fires dynamics in the Pantanal: Impacts of anthropogenic activities and climate change Marques, Juliana Fazolo, Alves, Maria Bevilacqua, Silveira, Carolina Ferrari, Amaral e Silva, Arthur, Silva, Thiago Abrantes, dos Santos, Vitor Juste, Calijuri, Maria Lucia Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Evaluation and comparison of Sentinel-2 MSI, Landsat 8 OLI, and EFFIS data for forest fires mapping. Illustrations from the summer 2017 fires in Tunisia Achour, Hammadi, Toujani, Ahmed, Trabelsi, Hichem, Jaouadi, Wahbi Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Evaluating accuracy of four MODIS-derived burned area products for tropical peatland and non-peatland fires Vetrita, Yenni, Cochrane, Mark A, Suwarsono, Priyatna, Muhammad, Sukowati, Kusumaning A D, Khomarudin, Muhammad R Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES
Expansion of pine into mid-elevation Himalayan oak forests: Patterns and drivers in a multiple-use landscape Das, Arundhati, Menon, Tarun, Ratnam, Jayashree, Thadani, Rajesh, Rajashekar, Gopalakrishnan, Fararoda, Rakesh, Shahabuddin, Ghazala Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Global search for temporal shifts in fire activity: Potential human influence on southwest Russia and north Australia fire seasons Liu, Tianjia, Mickley, Loretta J, McCarty, Jessica L Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES
Global tropospheric ozone responses to reduced NOx emissions linked to the COVID-19 worldwide lockdowns Miyazaki, Kazuyuki, Bowman, Kevin, Sekiya, Takashi, Takigawa, Masayuki, Neu, Jessica L., Sudo, Kengo, Osterman, Greg, Eskes, Henk Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Global impact of landscape fire emissions on surface level PM2.5 concentrations, air quality exposure and population mortality Roberts, G., Wooster, M.J. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
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