STEP-By-Step

Step-by-Step Explanation of the FIRECAM Online Tool

Step 1: Define Time Range

Select a time range: Use the start year and end year sliders to select a time range for the annual and monthly regional emissions time series charts.

Step 2: Select Bounds Type and Region/Pixel of Interest

Select a bounds type: Choose 1) "Global," 2) "Basis Region," 3) "Country/Sub-Region," 4) "Pixel," 5) "Custom," or 6) "Draw."

Global: all grid cells within GFEDv4s bounds (Note: monthly time series plot only shown for individual years)
Basis Region: 14 broad geographic regions from GFEDv4s (van der Werf et al., 2017)
Country/Sub-Region: countries and sub-regions from simplified Large Scale International Boundary (LSIB) Polygons; those with negligible fire emissions were excluded
Pixel: individual grid cells, 0.5° x 0.5° spatial resolution; the centroid of the selected grid cell is displayed on the map
Custom: user-defined polygon using an array of longitude, latitude coordinates; the tool re-defines the polygon to match the 0.5° x 0.5° grid of the basis regions
Draw: user-defined polygon, drawn interactively on the base map; the tool re-defines the polygon to match the 0.5° x 0.5° grid of the basis regions

Step 3: Select Species

Select a species: The six available species are carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH₄), organic carbon (OC), black carbon (BC), and fine particulate matter (PM_2.5)

Regional Emissions

After clicking the submit button, please wait a few seconds for the default map layers and three charts to display. Note that for large regions, such as BOAS, and long time ranges, calculations for the monthly and annual time series can take up to a few minutes. The three charts (annual average from 2003-2016 and two time series charts, yearly and monthly emissions by inventory), can be viewed in a new tab and exported as tables or images. Map layers consist of emissions at 0.5° x 0.5° spatial resolution for a given species for each of the five global fire emissions inventories and fire relative fire confidence metrics (described below) at 0.25° x 0.25° spatial resolution. The distribution of peatlands (0.25° x 0.25°), based on GFEDv4s emissions from 2003-2016, and MODIS land use/land cover map (500 m, MCD12Q1 C6), based on FINNv1.0 aggregated vegetation classes, are also available as map layers.

Relative Fire Confidence Metrics

The five "relative fire confidence metrics" provide an overview of the uncertainties and biases introduced in different approaches in constructing fire inventories. Here we provide some examples.

We can deduce from metrics 1 and 3 that the MODIS burned area product well captures large, contiguous fires, while the MODIS active fire product performs better in fire-prone regions with small, fragmented fires.
We can use metrics 2, 4, and 5 to infer some uncertainties associated with the fire inventories.
- Metric 2: cloud and thick haze obscure fires from satellite observations
- Metric 4: rough, mountainous terrain have shadows that make it difficult for satellite fire detection
- Metric 5: some small, short-lasting fires are not captured by MODIS

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