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This paper describes a methodology of using data acquired by the European Meteosat and the Japanese Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS) geostationary satellites to detect burned areas in different tropical environments. The methodology is based on a multiple threshold approach applied to the thermal radiance and to a spectral index specific for burned surfaces. The Simple Index for Burned Areas (SIBA), also developed in this study, makes use of the information contained in the visible and thermal InfraRed (IR) band available on the geostationary satellites, whose main advantages are the high temporal resolution and the minimal level of pre-processing required. The results obtained with Meteosat data have been evaluated comparing them with NOAA–Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data acquired over the Central Africa forest–savannah areas. For GMS imagery, AVHRR data acquired over the woodland–savannah areas of Northern Territory in Australia have been used. Despite the very low spatial and spectral resolution of the data, accuracy assessment showed at a regional and continental scale the resulting burned area maps could be a valuable source of information for the monitoring of the fire activity and for the assessment of fire impact on tropospheric chemistry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]