Global distribution and seasonality of active fires as observed with the Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors

We describe a new global multiyear satellite fire product designed to meet the needs of the global modeling community. We use the new data set to analyze the global distribution of biomass burning using five different temporal metrics derived from 5 years of high‐quality satellite data acquired with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), on board NASA's Terra satellite. The global distributions of fire pixel density, peak month, season length, and annual periodicity are described. As part of our analysis we show, for the first time, the global distribution of the fire radiative power (FRP), a relatively new remotely sensed quantity. We find that low FRP tends to be associated with areas of…