Comparación de los productos de área quemada y anomalias térmicas de MODIS en Brasil durante 2008

Each year, wildfires affect an area of 3 million of squared kilometers around the world. In order to estimate the impact of such phenomenon, and in order to be able to plan management activities and restoration works, it is necessary to know how much area is affected and where does vegetation burn. At global scale, the estimation of the burned area as well as the  biomass statistics are performed by means of satellite data, being the NASA MODIS (MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) sensor one of the most widely used. On the one hand, and by means of MODIS reflectance data, a global 500m-pixel size burned area product is produced at monthly resolution (MCD45A1) using a methodology that is based on temporal series of reflectance data. On the other hand, and by means of the MODIS thermal bands, a global 1000m spatial resolution thermal anomalies or hotspot product is elaborated. Both products can be downloaded from the Internet free of charge. The present paper analyses the relationships between these two products in Brazil during 2008, using an equal-area Sinusoidal grid of 10 by 10km. The analysis of the resulting data, which were studied at annual and monthly scales, and in combination with different thematic cartographies for stratification purposes, revealed the difficulties to find reliable and predictable relationships between the two mentioned products. The lack of a proper relationship between MODIS burned area and thermal anomalies products may also make us think about the adequacy of one or the other product to be involved in complex climatic models or decision making mechanisms.