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Description

The Terra and Aqua combined MCD64A1 Version 6.1 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

Version Description

The following changes and improvements were implemented for inputs to MODIS Version 6.1 Burned Area data products: (1) Version 6.1 Level-1B (L1B) products have been improved by undergoing various calibration changes that include: changes to the response-versus-scan angle (RVS) approach that affects reflectance bands for Aqua and Terra MODIS, corrections to adjust for the optical crosstalk in Terra MODIS infrared (IR) bands, and corrections to the Terra MODIS forward look-up table (LUT) update for the period 2012 – 2017, and (2) A polarization correction has been applied to the L1B Reflective Solar Bands (RSB).

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 Present
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
C2565786756-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
82264
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Fire Ecology ,
Biomass Burning ,
Wildfires ,
Fire Occurrence ,
Burned Area

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. (2021). MODIS/Terra+Aqua Burned Area Monthly L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V061 [Dataset]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD64A1.061 Date Accessed: 2026-07-13

File Naming Convention

MCD64A1.A2025152.h06v03.061.2025220161136.hdf

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MCD64A1) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2025152), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h06v03), the Version of the data collection (061), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2025220161136), and the Data Format (hdf).

Documents

USER'S GUIDE

ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD)

PRODUCT QUALITY ASSESSMENT

SCIENCE DATA PRODUCT VALIDATION

GENERAL DOCUMENTATION

MODIS 7-2-1

FIRMS - Use ArcGIS to Determine Fire Affected Areas in NRT Using MODIS and VIIRS

This tutorial shows how using ArcGIS Pro, MODIS Bands 7-2-1 and VIIRS M11-I2-I1 Corrected Reflectance Imagery can be viewed in combination with the active fire data to identify fire-affected areas that are characterized by deposits of charcoal and ash, removal of vegetation and/or alteration of vegetation structure.
Tutorial
Aug. 26, 2013
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Publications Citing This Dataset

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Title Year Author Topic
Fire dynamics in extreme climatic events in western amazon da Silva Junior, Luiz Augusto Siciliano, Delgado, Rafael Coll, Pereira, Marcos Gervasio, Teodoro, Paulo Eduardo, da Silva Junior, Carlos Antonio Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Fire on the water towersMapping burn scars on mount Kenya using satellite data to reconstruct recent fire history Henry, Mary C., Maingi, John K., McCarty, Jessica Terrain Elevation, Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM), Topographical Relief Maps, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Extensive 21st-century woody encroachment in South America's savanna Rosan, Thais M., Aragao, Luiz E.O.C., Oliveras, Imma, Phillips, Oliver L., Malhi, Yadvinder, Gloor, Emanuel, Wagner, Fabien H. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Reflectance, Snow Grain Size, Snow Cover
Evaluating the social and environmental factors behind the 2015 extreme fire event in Sumatra, Indonesia Sze, Jocelyne Shimin, Jefferson, Lee, Janice Ser Huay Infrastructure, Food Security, Conservation, Environmental Health Factors, Urbanization/Urban Sprawl, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Estimation of CO2 emissions from wildfires using OCO-2 data Guo, Meng, Li, Jing, Wen, Lixiang, Huang, Shubo Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Global validation of the collection 6 MODIS burned area product Boschetti, Luigi, Roy, David P., Giglio, Louis, Huang, Haiyan, Zubkova, Maria, Humber, Michael L. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Global detection of long-term (1982-2017) burned area with AVHRR-LTDR data Oton, Gonzalo, Ramo, Ruben, Lizundia-Loiola, Joshua, Chuvieco, Emilio Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Generating a long-term data series of burned area in Eastern Siberia using LTDR data (1984-2016) Tomshin, Oleg, Solovyev, Vladimir Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Generating intra-year metrics of wildfire progression using multiple open-access satellite data streams Crowley, Morgan A., Cardille, Jeffrey A., White, Joanne C., Wulder, Michael A. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Unprecedented atmospheric ammonia concentrations detected in the high Arctic from the 2017 Canadian Wildfires Lutsch, Erik, Strong, Kimberly, Jones, Dylan B. A., Ortega, Ivan, Hannigan, James W., Dammers, Enrico, Shephard, Mark W., Morris, Eleanor, Murphy, Killian, Evans, Mathew J., Parrington, Mark, Whitburn, Simon, Van Damme, Martin, Clarisse, Lieven, Coheur, PierreFrancois, Clerbaux, Cathy, Croft, Betty, Martin, Randall V., Pierce, Jeffrey R., Fisher, Jenny A. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Wildfire detection probability of MODIS fire products under the constraint of environmental factorsA study based on confirmed ground wildfire records Ying, Lingxiao, Shen, Zehao, Yang, Mingzheng, Piao, Shilong Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES
How well does the 'small fire boost' methodology used within the GFED4.1s fire emissions database represent the timing, location and magnitude of agricultural burning? Zhang, Tianran, Wooster, Martin J., De Jong, Mark C., Xu, Weidong Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Post-drought decline of the Amazon carbon sink Yang, Yan, Saatchi, Sassan S., Xu, Liang, Yu, Yifan, Choi, Sungho, Phillips, Nathan, Kennedy, Robert, Keller, Michael, Knyazikhin, Yuri, Myneni, Ranga B. Total Surface Precipitation Rate, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Reflectance, Terrain Elevation
The Collection 6 MODIS burned area mapping algorithm and product Giglio, Louis, Boschetti, Luigi, Roy, David P., Humber, Michael L., Justice, Christopher O. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Spatio-temporal distribution of burned areas by ecoregions in Mexico and Central America Rios, Blanca, Raga, Graciela B. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Data DescriptorFRY, a global database of fire patch functional traits derived from space-borne burned area products Laurent, Pierre, Mouillot, Florent, Yue, Chao, Ciais, Philippe, Moreno, M. Vanesa, Nogueira, Joana M. P. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Contiguous United States wildland fire emission estimates during 20032015 Urbanski, Shawn P., Reeves, Matt C., Corley, Rachel E., Silverstein, Robin P., Hao, Wei Min Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
A new top-down approach for directly estimating biomass burning emissions and fuel consumption rates and totals from geostationary satellite fire radiative power (FRP) Mota, Bernardo, Wooster, Martin J. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
A fuel moisture content and flammability monitoring methodology for continental Australia based on optical remote sensing Yebra, Marta, Quan, Xingwen, Riano, David, Rozas Larraondo, Pablo, van Dijk, Albert I.J.M., Cary, Geoffrey J. Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Anisotropy, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Albedo
Assessing the Impact of Climate Variability on Wildfires in the N'Zi Kouassi, Jean-Luc Kouakou, Wandan, Narcisse Eboua, Mbow, Cheikh Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Fire in sub-Saharan Africa: The fuel, cure and connectivity hypothesis Kahiu, M. Njoki, Hanan, N. P. 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
Extending the baseline of tropical dry forest loss in Ghana (19842015) reveals drivers of major deforestation inside a protected area Janssen, Thomas A.J., Ametsitsi, George K.D., Collins, Murray, Adu-Bredu, Stephen, Oliveras, Imma, Mitchard, Edward T.A., Veenendaal, Elmar M. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Evaluation of a Bayesian Algorithm to Detect Burned Areas in the Canary Guindos-Rojas, Francisco, Arbelo, Manuel, Garcia-Lazaro, Jose, Moreno-Ruiz, Jose, Hernandez-Leal, Pedro Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Reflectance, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity
Effects of sample size on burned areas accuracy estimates in the Amazon Basin Fernandez-Carrillo, Angel, Tanase, Mihai A., Belenguer-Plomer, Miguel A., Chuvieco, Emilio Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Estimation of burned area in the Northeastern Siberian boreal forest from a Long-Term Data Record (LTDR) 1982-2015 time series Garcia-Lazaro, Jose R., Moreno-Ruiz, Jose A., Riano, David, Arbelo, Manuel Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
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