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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
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 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD64A1.006 Date Accessed: 2026-05-15

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

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Title Year Author Topic
Predicting potential fire severity in Turkiye's diverse forested areas: a SHAP-integrated random forest classification approach Eker, Remzi, Aydn, Abdurrahim Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Terrain Elevation, RADAR IMAGERY, Topographical Relief Maps
Precipitation-induced abrupt decrease of Siberian wildfire in summer Cho, Yeonsoo, Yoon, Jin-Ho, Jeong, Jee-Hoon, Kug, Jong-Seong, Kim, Baek-Min, Kim, Hyungjun, Park, Rokjin J, Kim, Sang-Woo Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES
Prescribed burning and integrated fire management in the Brazilian Cerrado: demonstrated impacts and scale-up potential for emission abatement Franke, Jonas, Sena Barradas, Ana Carolina, Borges, Kelly Maria Resende, Hoffmann, Anja A, Filho, Juan Carlos Orozco, Ramos, Rossano Marchetti, Steil, Lara, Roman-Cuesta, Rosa Maria Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Observational Support for Regional Policy Implementation: Land Surface Change Under Anthropogenic and Climate Pressure in SALDi Study Sites Baade, Jussi, Gessner, Ursula, Hahndiek, Eugene, Harmse, Christiaan, Hill, Steven, Hirner, Andreas, Maruping-Mzileni, Nkabeng, Otte, Insa, Pathe, Carsten, Renner, Paul, Schellenberg, Konstantin, Selvaraj, Shanmugapriya, Smith, Chris, Strydom, Tercia, Swanepol, Annette, Thonfeld, Frank, Urban, Marcel, Zhang, Zhenyu, Schmullius, Christiane Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Multi-timescale variation characteristics of PM2. 5 in different regions of China during 20142022 Liu, Rui, Shao, Min, Wang, Qin'geng Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Monitoring the impact of forest changes on carbon uptake with solar-induced fluorescence measurements from GOME-2A and TROPOMI for an Australian and ... Anema, Juliette C. S., Boersma, Klaas Folkert, Stammes, Piet, Koren, Gerbrand, Woodgate, William, Kohler, Philipp, Frankenberg, Christian, Stol, Jacqui Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
mapme.biodiversity: Efficient Monitoring of Global Biodiversity Portfolios Gorgen, Darius A., Bhandari, Om Prakash Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Terrain Elevation, RADAR IMAGERY, Topographical Relief Maps
Long-Term Satellite Monitoring of Various Types of Wildfires and Wildfire-Induced Emissions of Climate-Active Gases and Aerosols in Russia and in Its Large Regions Bondur, V. G., Zima, A. L., Feoktistova, N. V. Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Occurrence, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Burned Area
Chemical composition and origins of PM <sub>2.5</sub> in Chiang Mai Chansuebsri, Sarana, Kolar, Petr, Kraisitnitikul, Pavidarin, Kantarawilawan, Natthanit, Yabueng, Nuttipon, Wiriya, Wan, Thepnuan, Duangduean, Chantara, Somporn Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Changes in Water and Carbon Fluxes in the USA Southern Great Plains Grassland Due to Evergreen Forest Encroachment Yang, Xuebin, Xiao, Xiangming, Zhang, Chenchen, Celis, Jorge Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Co-occurrence of marine and atmospheric heatwaves with drought conditions and fire activity in the Mediterranean region Santos, Raquel, Russo, Ana, Gouveia, Celia M. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Coherence of recurring fires and land use change in South America Ren, Shulin, Xu, Xiyan, Jia, Gensuo, Huang, Anqi, Ma, Wei Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Characteristics
Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Wildfires in Ecuador Using Remote Sensing Data Cisneros Vaca, Cesar, Calahorrano, Julia, Manzano, Mery Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Sentinel-2 Reference Fire Perimeters for the Assessment of Burned Area Products over Latin America and the Caribbean for the Year 2019 Gonzalez-Ibarzabal, Jon, Franquesa, Magi, Rodriguez-Montellano, Armando, Bastarrika, Aitor Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Small Fires, Big Impact: Evaluating Fire Emission Estimates in Southern van der Velde, I. R., van der Werf, G. R., van Wees, D., Schutgens, N. A. J., Vernooij, R., Houweling, S., Tonucci, E., Chuvieco, E., Randerson, J. T., Frey, M. M., Borsdorff, T., Aben, I. Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Record-breaking fire weather in North America in 2021 was initiated by the Pacific northwest heat dome Jain, Piyush, Sharma, Aseem Raj, Acuna, Dante Castellanos, Abatzoglou, John T., Flannigan, Mike Population Size, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Vegetation Index, Landscape Patterns, Air Quality, Particulates, Dust/Ash/Smoke, Particulate Matter, Particulate Matter Concentrations
Recovery Following Recurrent Fires Across Mediterranean Ecosystems Ermitao, Tiago, Gouveia, Celia M., Bastos, Ana, Russo, Ana C. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Satellite Monitoring of Post-Fire Normalized Burn Ratio Dynamics in Forests in the South of Central Siberia Khakassian State University; Krasnoyarsk Science Center SB RAS, Shvetsov, E.G. Reflectance, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Repeat GEDI footprints measure the effects of tropical forest disturbances Holcomb, Amelia, Burns, Patrick, Keshav, Srinivasan, Coomes, David A. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Plant Phenology, Canopy Characteristics, Vegetation Cover, Lidar, Topography, Vegetation Height, Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM), VIEWING GEOMETRY, Terrain Elevation, Forests, Evergreen Vegetation, Deciduous Vegetation, Shrubland/Scrub, Biomass, Grasslands, LIDAR WAVEFORM
Radiative forcing geoengineering causes higher risk of wildfires and permafrost thawing over the Arctic regions Muller, Rhonda C., Kim, Jin-Soo, Lee, Hanna, Muri, Helene, Tjiputra, Jerry, Yoon, Jin-Ho, Schaepman-Strub, Gabriela Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Pyrogeography in flux: Reorganization of Australian fire regimes in a Cunningham, Calum X., Williamson, Grant J., Nolan, Rachael H., Teckentrup, Lina, Boer, Matthias M., Bowman, David M. J. S. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Quantifying Prescribed-Fire Smoke Exposure Using Low-Cost Sensors and Sablan, Olivia, Ford, Bonne, Gargulinski, Emily, Hammer, Melanie S., Henery, Giovanna, Kondragunta, Shobha, Martin, Randall V., Rosen, Zoey, Slater, Kellin, van Donkelaar, Aaron, Zhang, Hai, Soja, Amber J., Magzamen, Sheryl, Pierce, Jeffrey R., Fischer, Emily V. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
State of Wildfires 2023-2024 Jones, Matthew W., Kelley, Douglas I., Burton, Chantelle A., Di Giuseppe, Francesca, Barbosa, Maria Lucia F., Brambleby, Esther, Hartley, Andrew J., Lombardi, Anna, Mataveli, Guilherme, McNorton, Joe R., Spuler, Fiona R., Wessel, Jakob B., Abatzoglou, John T., Anderson, Liana O., Andela, Niels, Archibald, Sally, Armenteras, Dolors, Burke, Eleanor, Carmenta, Rachel, Chuvieco, Emilio, Clarke, Hamish, Doerr, Stefan H., Fernandes, Paulo M., Giglio, Louis, Hamilton, Douglas S., Hantson, Stijn, Harris, Sarah, Jain, Piyush, Kolden, Crystal A., Kurvits, Tiina, Lampe, Seppe, Meier, Sarah, New, Stacey, Parrington, Mark, Perron, Morgane M. G., Qu, Yuquan, Ribeiro, Natasha S., Saharjo, Bambang H., San-Miguel-Ayanz, Jesus, Shuman, Jacquelyn K., Tanpipat, Veerachai, van der Werf, Guido R., Veraverbeke, Sander, Xanthopoulos, Gavriil Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Canopy Characteristics, Evergreen Vegetation, Crown, Deciduous Vegetation, Leaf Characteristics, Vegetation Cover, Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Untangling the environmental drivers of gross primary productivity in African rangelands Lomax, Guy A., Powell, Thomas W. R., Lenton, Timothy M., Economou, Theo, Cunliffe, Andrew M. Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
The key role of extreme weather and climate change in the occurrence of exceptional fire seasons in south-central Chile Carrasco-Escaff, Tomas, Garreaud, Rene, Bozkurt, Deniz, Jacques-Coper, Martin, Pauchard, Anibal Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
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