Charles Ichoku1, Gabriel Pereira1,2, Luke Ellison1,3, Wilfrid Schroeder4, and Arlindo da Silva1

Presented at the 37th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment, Tshwane, Pretoria, South Africa, May 7-12, 2017

Picture from ISS on 23-July-2011

1. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA.

2. Federal University of São João del-Rei (UFSJ), Brazil.

3. Science Systems & Applications, Inc., Lanham, Maryland, USA.

4. University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

Outline

African Fires in the Global Context

Seasonal and Diurnal Patterns of African Fires

African Fires and Land cover Change

Multi-satellite Fire Analysis

Conclusions and Acknowledgements

MODIS Fire Detection for 2003

3.1×109 t of biomass carbon burned

1.1×109 t is emitted to the atmosphere

(Fearnside, 2000, Climatic Change 46: 115–158.)

Annually Persistent Global Issue

Fires contribute: 40% BC, 25% CO2 of total global emissions

Global Fire Activity

Annual Carbon Emissions from Open Fires by Region

Van der Werf et al., 2010, ACP

Monthly Fire Radiative Power Measurements from MODIS for 2016

Jan 2016

Dec 2016 Nov 2016 Oct 2016

Aug 2016 Jul 2016 Jun 2016 May 2016

Apr 2016 Mar 2016 Feb 2016

Sep 2016

https://feer.gsfc.nasa.gov/multimedia/frpmaps/

Examples of High Fire Activity Snapshots

Top: West and Central

Africa observed from NPP

VIIRS on 30-January-2016.

Top Right: Blowup of yellow

box on Top

Right: Southern Africa

observed from Aqua

MODIS on 13-May-2010

Fire Diurnal Characteristics from SEVIRI for 2011–2012

Andela et al., 2015, ACP

Grid res.

= 0.1°

{Peak

Intensity}

{Nocturnal

Activity}

{Duration} {Peak Local

Time}

Distribution of Fire Characteristics from SEVIRI for 2010–2012

Andela et al., 2015, ACP

Grid res.

= 0.1°

Land-cover Change

Based on Hansen et al (2013) Science (http://earthenginepartners.appspot.com/google.com/science-2013-global-forest)

Forest Loss and Gain Analysis from Landsat

Forest Reserves Under Pressure in Ghana

In the 1973 image the

vegetation inside and outside

the protected areas appears

green and robust

In the 2002/2003 dramatic change

is apparent; some of the northern

reserves have been decimated

and the northern edge of the

forest zone has moved south

Republic of Ghana

Fire-induced land conversion to cropland is increasing in middle Africa

Charles Ichoku (NASA/GSFC/613) and Luke Ellison (NASA/GSFC/613/SSAI)

Widespread burning that peaked in 2006 across the northern part of sub-Saharan Africa

influences land-cover changes that result in a net conversion of 0.28%/year of the total

land area to cropland, with the majority (0.18%/year) coming from savanna. Over the

last decade, the trend is increasing from savanna, forest, and wetlands to cropland.

SavannatoCroplandchanges

ForesttoCroplandchanges

NormalizedAverageAnnualLandCoverChangesfrom2003to2012

NormalizedDifferencesinAverageAnnualLandCoverChangesfor2012minus2006

0.00.20.40.60.81.0-1.0-0.50.00.51.0

NormalizedAverageAnnualFREFluxfor2003/04to2012/13fireseasons

NormalizedDifferenceinFREFlux(2012/13minus2006/07)

BiomassBurning

Land-coverChange

Ichoku et al., 2016, ERL

Example Linking Fire To Forest Depletion in West Africa

Ichoku et al., 2016, ERL

Biomass burning in northern sub-Saharan Africa and

associated changes in environmental and climate variables

Presented at Our Common Future under Climate Change (CFCC) International Science Conference, Paris, UPMC room 101, 18:15, Tuesday, 7-July-2015

Charles Ichoku1, Luke Ellison1,2, Charles Gatebe1,3, Rajesh Poudyal1,2, Toshihisa Matsui1,4, Elena Willmot5, Trisha

Gabbert6, Jun Wang7, Yun Yue7, Richard Damoah1,8, Jejung Lee9, Jimmy Adegoke9, John Bolten1, Fritz Policelli1,

Eric Wilcox10, Farnaz Hosseinpour10, Shahid Habib1, Churchill Okonkwo11, Francois Engelbrecht12

1NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 610, Greenbelt, MD, USA 2Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Lanham, MD, USA 3Universities Space Research Association (USRA), Columbia, MD, USA 4Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC), Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA 5Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA 6South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (SDSMT), Rapid City, SD, USA 7University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA 8Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, USA 9University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO, USA 10Desert Research Institute (DRI), Reno, NV, USA 11Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA 12Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pretoria, South Africa

Aerosol simulation from NASA GEOS-5 model nature

run, showing the distribution of sea-salt (blue),

pollution/volcanic (white), dust (red), and smoke

(green) aerosols over the African continent, with red

dots representing fire detections from MODIS (Image

source: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011100/a01119

2/still_3-1024.jpg)

Environmental Research Letters Focus Issue (cover):

African Environmental Processes and Water-Cycle Dynamics

Normalized Forest Density and Change during 2003–2012

Normalized Average Forest Density Normalized Average Forest Change

Grid res. = 1° Grid res. = 1°

Northern Hemisphere Africa

Southern Hemisphere Africa

FRP from MODIS vs VIIRS at different Grid Resolutions

0.1 deg, r=0.89 0.5 deg, r=0.91 1.0 deg, r=0.96

0.1 deg, r=0.83 0.5 deg, r=0.89 1.0 deg, r=0.90

Conclusions

Africa contributes over 50% of the global annual carbon emissions from open fires, and most of these fires are anthropogenically induced.

These fires are contributing significantly to various environmental change processes, including forest cover loss, land cover conversion to cropland, and perhaps also drought and other phenomena. Although burning has decreased in the last decade in Northern sub-Saharan Africa, there is a perceptible increase in the burning of forests and wetlands. On the other hand, burning is increasing in Southern sub-Saharan Africa.

Acknowledgements

NASA Earth Science Interdisciplinary Studies (IDS) (c/o Drs. Jack Kaye and Hal Maring) for Funding Support Various NASA and other teams that provide data, as well as analysis and modeling support Various collaborating Agencies

NASA-FEER Fire Data Availability http://feer.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ (Ichoku and Ellison, 2014, ACP)