World Fire Atlas 1995–2010

Fires are a major source of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The ESA Fire Climate Change Initiative project intends to provide an accurate and consistent evaluation of burned areas globally using European Earth observation sensors. The outputs of this project will be used by climate-vegetation modellers to improve their current estimations of global vegetation and atmospheric conditions related to fire.

Working like thermometers in the sky, the Along Track Scanning Radiometer and the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer on ESA’s ERS-2 and Envisat satellites measure thermal-infrared radiation to take the temperature of Earth’s land surface. Data from these sensors are compiled to create ESA’s ATSR World Fire Atlas.