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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: 2026-05-16

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
Precipitation gradients drive high tree species turnover in the Davies, Robert W., Ryan, Casey M., Harrison, Rhett D., Dexter, Kyle G., Ahrends, Antje, te Beest, Mariska, Benitez, Lorena, Brade, Thom K., Carreiras, Joao M. B., Druce, Dave J., Fayolle, Adeline, Finckh, Manfred, Godlee, John L., Gonclaves, Francisco M., Grundy, Isla M., Hoche, T., Holdo, Ricardo M., Makungwa, Steve, McNicol, Iain M., Mograbi, Penelope J., Muchawona, Anderson, Muhate, Aristidies, Muledi, Jonathan, Pritchard, Rose, Revermann, Rasmus, Ribeiro, Natasha S., Siampale, Abel, Carla Staver, A., Syampungani, Stephen, Williams, Mathew, Swemmer, Anthony M., Edwards, David P. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Protected areas are effective on curbing fires in the Amazon Pessoa, Ana Carolina M., Morello R.S., Thiago F., Silva-Junior, Celso H.L., Doblas, Juan, Carvalho, Nathalia S., Aragao, Luiz E.O.C., Anderson, Liana O. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Vegetation Fires and Entropy Variations in Myanmar Vadrevu, Krishna Prasad, Salikineedi, Pranith, Eaturu, Aditya, Biswas, Sumalika Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Widespread synchronous decline of Mediterranean-type forest driven by accelerated aridity Miranda, Alejandro, Syphard, Alexandra D., Berdugo, Miguel, Carrasco, Jaime, Gomez-Gonzalez, Susana, Ovalle, Juan F., Delpiano, Cristian A., Vargas, Solange, Squeo, Francisco A., Miranda, Marcelo D., Dobbs, Cynnamon, Mentler, Rayen, Lara, Antonio, Garreaud, Rene Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Wildfire prediction for California using and comparing Spatio-Temporal Knowledge Graphs Bockling, Martin, Paulheim, Heiko, Detzler, Sarah Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Regional ecological forecasting across scales: A manifesto for a Slingsby, Jasper A., Wilson, Adam M., Maitner, Brian, Moncrieff, Glenn R. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
The Drought Regime in Southern Africa: A Systematic Review Chivangulula, Fernando Maliti, Amraoui, Malik, Pereira, Mario Gonzalez Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Leaf Characteristics, Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Canopy Characteristics, Evergreen Vegetation, Crown, Deciduous Vegetation, Vegetation Cover, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Emissivity, Reflectance
Spatio-temporal variability of fire occurrence and recurrence in the Silva, Amanda Cavalcante da, Juvanhol, Ronie Silva, Miranda, Jonathan da Rocha Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Summer Compound Drought-Heat Extremes Amplify Fire-Weather Risk and Burned Area beyond Historical Thresholds in Chongqing Region, Subtropical China Gutierrez Rodriguez, Lucas, He, Yingpeng, Sun, Mengqi, Yao, Yinan, de Dios, Victor Resco Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Remotely Sensed Agriculture Drought Indices for Assessing the Impact on Khlif, Manel, Escorihuela, Maria Jose, Chahbi Bellakanji, Aicha, Paolini, Giovanni, Lili Chabaane, Zohra Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity
Reply to: Detecting long-term Arctic surface water changes Webb, Elizabeth E., Liljedahl, Anna K., Loranty, Michael M., Witharana, Chandi, Lichstein, Jeremy W. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Using Landsat time series and bi-temporal GEDI to compare spectral and structural vegetation responses after fire Huettermann, Sven, Jones, Simon, Soto-Berelov, Mariela, Hislop, Samuel Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Plant Phenology, Canopy Characteristics, Vegetation Cover, Lidar, Topography, Vegetation Height
Underground trees inhabit varied environmental extremes across the Afrotropics Courtenay, Anya P, Moonlight, Peter W, Toby Pennington, R, Lehmann, Caroline E R Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
The power of eDNA sampling to investigate the impact of Australian mega-fires on platypus occupancy McColl-Gausden, Emily F., Griffiths, Josh, Collins, Luke, Weeks, Andrew R., Tingley, Reid Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Tropical savanna small mammals respond to loss of cover following disturbance: A global review of field studies Bergstrom, Bradley J., Scruggs, Samuel B., Vieira, Emerson M. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Tracking Changes in Vegetation Structure Following Fire in the Cerrado Konduri, Venkata Shashank, Morton, Douglas C., Andela, Niels Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Tree size diversity is the major driver of aboveground carbon storage in dryland agroforestry parklands Noulekoun, Florent, Mensah, Sylvanus, Kim, HyungSub, Jo, Heejae, Gouwakinnou, Gerard N., Houehanou, Thierry D., Mensah, Michael, Naab, Jesse, Son, Yowhan, Khamzina, Asia Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
The savannization of tropical forests in mainland Southeast Asia since 2000 Wang, Mengjie, Guo, Qinfeng, Chen, Anping 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
Conjunctive use of Landsat-8 OLI and MODIS data for delineation of burned areas Azeemuddin, Syed, Dwivedi, R.S. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Correlates of geoxyle diversity in Afrotropical grasslands Meller, Paulina, Stellmes, Marion, Fidelis, Alessandra, Finckh, Manfred Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES
Comparing the ability of burned area products to detect crop residue burning in China Zhang, Sumei, Zhao, Hongmei, Wu, Zehao, Tan, Longda Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Detecting and quantifying residue burning in smallholder systemsAn integrated approach using Sentinel-2 data Deshpande, Monish Vijay, Pillai, Dhanyalekshmi, Jain, Meha Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES
Evaluation of low-resolution remotely sensed datasets for burned area assessment within the wildland-urban interface Smith, H., de Beurs, K.M., Neeson, T.M. Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Forest fire action on vegetation from the perspective of trend analysis in future climate change scenarios for a Brazilian savanna region Miranda, Jonathan da Rocha, Silva, Rosane Gomes da, Juvanhol, Ronie Silva Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Precipitation, Precipitation Amount, Precipitation Rate, Snow, Rain
Fires Drive Long-Term Environmental Degradation in the Amazon Basin Silva Junior, Carlos Antonio da, Lima, Mendelson, Teodoro, Paulo Eduardo, Oliveira-Junior, Jose Francisco de, Rossi, Fernando Saragosa, Funatsu, Beatriz Miky, Butturi, Weslei, Lourenconi, Thais, Kraeski, Aline, Pelissari, Tatiane Deoti, Moratelli, Francielli Aloisio, Arvor, Damien, Luz, Iago Manuelson dos Santos, Teodoro, Larissa Pereira Ribeiro, Dubreuil, Vincent, Teixeira, Vinicius Modolo Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
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