Continental Africa Biomass Burning Temporal Dynamics derived from MSG SEVIRI

An analysis of one year of METEOSAT Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) active fire data is presented. Fire Radiative Power (FRP) observations, acquired at a 15-minute time interval and 3 km spatial resolution, are used to estimate the total amount of African biomass combustion. African biomass combustion between February 2004 and January 2005 is estimated to be at least 855 million tonnes. FRP-derived biomass combustion estimates at a 1-degree spatial scale are found to be less than 2 kg/m2. In savanna grasslands the FRP-derived median fuel consumption estimate of 300 g/m2 is in good agreement with literature values. Analysis of fire pixel temporal persistence indicates that the majority of African fires are detected only once in consecutive 15 minute images. Fire pixel duration is longest during the peak biomass burning season with a greater proportion of pixels detected only once during the wet season. An investigation of the variability of the diurnal fire cycle is carried out with respect to land cover type, and whilst differences are noted between land covers, the diurnal characteristics for a given land cover type are similar in both African hemispheres.