ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-10-1491-2010 Smoke injection heights from fires in North America: analysis of 5 years of satellite observations Val Martin M. 1 Logan J. A. 1 Kahn R. A. 2 Leung F.-Y. 3 Nelson D. L. 4 Diner D. J. 5 School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,Greenbelt, MD, USA Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems, Pasadena, CA, USA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA 15 02 2010 10 4 1491 1510 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/10/1491/2010/acp-10-1491-2010.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/10/1491/2010/acp-10-1491-2010.pdf

We analyze an extensive record of aerosol smoke plume heights derived from observations over North America for the fire seasons of 2002 and 2004–2007 made by the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on board the NASA Earth Observing System Terra satellite. We characterize the magnitude and variability of smoke plume heights for various biomes, and assess the contribution of local atmospheric and fire conditions to this variability. Plume heights are highly variable, ranging from a few hundred meters up to 5000 m above the terrain at the Terra overpass time (11:00–14:00 local time). The largest plumes are found over the boreal region (median values of ~850 m height, 24 km length and 940 m thickness), whereas the smallest plumes are found over cropland and grassland fires in the contiguous US (median values of ~530 m height, 12 km length and 550–640 m thickness). The analysis of plume heights in combination with assimilated meteorological observations from the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System indicates that a significant fraction (4–12%) of plumes from fires are injected above the boundary layer (BL), consistent with earlier results for Alaska and the Yukon Territories during summer 2004. Most of the plumes located above the BL (>83%) are trapped within stable atmospheric layers. We find a correlation between plume height and the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire radiative power (FRP) thermal anomalies associated with each plume. Smoke plumes located in the free troposphere (FT) exhibit larger FRP values (1620–1640 MW) than those remaining within the BL (174–465 MW). Plumes located in the FT without a stable layer reach higher altitudes and are more spread-out vertically than those associated with distinct stable layers (2490 m height and 2790 m thickness versus 1880 m height and 1800 m thickness). The MISR plume climatology exhibits a well-defined seasonal cycle of plume heights in boreal and temperate biomes, with greater heights during June–July. MODIS FRP measurements indicate that larger summertime heights are the result of higher fire intensity, likely due to more severe fire weather during these months. This work demonstrates the significant effect of fire intensity and atmospheric structure on the ultimate rise of fire emissions, and underlines the importance of considering such physical processes in modeling smoke dispersion.

 References Amiro, B D., Logan, K., Wotton, B., Flannigan, M., Todd, J., Stocks, B., and Martell, D.: Fire weather index system components of large fires in the Canadian boreal forest, Int. J. Wildland Fire, 13, 391–400, 2004. Andreae, M. and Merlet, P.: Emissions from trace gases and aerosols from biomass burning, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 15, 955–966, 2001. Ayers, G.: Comment on regression analysis of air quality data, Atmos.\ Environ., 35, 2423–2425, 2001. Blake, D R., T W Smith, J., Chan, T.-Y., Whipple, W J., and Rowland, F S.: Effects of biomass burning on summertime nonmethane hydrocarbon concentrations in the Canadian wetlands, \jgr, 99, 1699–1719, 1994. Bloom, S., da~Silva, A., Dee, D., Bosilovich, M., Chern, J.-D., Pawson, S., Schubert, S., Sienkiewicz, M., and Stajner, I.: Documentation and validation of the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) Data Assimilation System – Version 4 .Technical report series on Global Modeling and Data Assimilation, Tech. Rep. NASA/TM–2005–7104606, Vol. 26, 2005. Burgan, R E., Andrews, P., Bradshaw, L., Chase, C., Hartford, R., and Latham, D.: WFAS: Wildland Fire Assessment System, Tech. Rep. Fire Management Notes, 57(2), 14–17, 1997. Chen, Y., Li, Q., Randerson, J. T., Lyons, E. A., Kahn, R. A., Nelson, D. L., and Diner, D. J.: The sensitivity of CO and aerosol transport to the temporal and vertical distribution of North American boreal fire emissions, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 6559–6580, 2009. Colarco, P R., Schoeberl, M R., Doddridge, B G., Marufu, L T., Torres, O., and Welton, E J.: Transport of smoke from Canadian forest fires to the surface near Washington, D.C.: Injection height, entrainment, and optical properties, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D06203, doi:10.1029/2003JD004248, 2004. Cotton, W R., Pielke, R A., Walko, R L., Liston, G., Tremback, C J., Jiang, H., McAnelly, R L., Harrington, J Y., Nicholls, M E., Carrio, G G., and McFadden, J P.: RAMS 2001: Current status and future directions, Meteorol. Atmos. Phys., 82, 5–29, 2003. Damoah, R., Spichtinger, N., Forster, C., James, P., Mattis, I., Wandinger, U., Beirle, S., Wagner, T., and Stohl, A.: Around the world in 17 days – hemispheric-scale transport of forest fire smoke from Russia in May 2003, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 4, 1311–1321, 2004. Damoah, R., Spichtinger, N., Servranckx, R., Fromm, M., Eloranta, E. W., Razenkov, I. A., James, P., Shulski, M., Forster, C., and Stohl, A.: A case study of pyro-convection using transport model and remote sensing data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 173–185, 2006. de Gouw, J A., Warneke, C., Stohl, A., Wollny, A G., Brock, C A., Cooper, O R., Holloway, J S., Trainer, M., Fehsenfeld, F C., Atlas, E L., Donnelly, S G., Stroud, V., and Lueb, A.: Volatile organic compounds composition of merged and aged forest fire plumes from Alaska and western Canada, \jgr, 111, D10303, \doi10.1029/2005JD006175, 2006. Diner, D J., Beckert, J., Reilly, T., Bruegge, C., Conel, J., Kahn, R., Martonchik, J., Ackerman, T., Davies, R., Gerstl, S., Gordon, H., Muller, J.-P., Myneni, R., Sellers, P., Pinty, B., and Verstraete, M.: Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument description and experiment overview, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 36, 1072–1087, 1998. Dirksen, R J., Boersma, K F., de~Laat, A. T J., Stammes, P., van~der Werf, G R., Val~Martin, M., , and Kelder, H M.: An aerosol boomerang: rapid around-the-world transport of smoke from the December 2006 Australian forest fires observed from space, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D21201, doi:10.1029/2009JD012360, 2009. Duck, T J., Firanski, B J., Millet, D B., Goldstein, A H., Allan, J., Holzinger, R., Worsnop, D R., White, A B., Stohl, A., Dickinson, C S., and van Donkelaar, A.: Transport of forest fire emissions from Alaska and the Yukon Territory to Nova Scotia during summer 2004, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D10S44, doi:10.1029/2006JD007716, 2007. Flannigan, M., Stocks, B., and Wotton, B.: Climate change and forest fires, Sci. Tot. Env., 262, 221–229, 2000. Forster, P., Ramaswamy, V., Artaxo, P., Berntsen, T., Betts, R., Fahey, D W., Haywood, J., Lean, J., Lowe, D., Myhre, G., Nganga, J., Prinn, R., Raga, G., Schulz, M., and Dorland, R V.: Changes in atmospheric constituents and in radiative forcing, in: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 2007. Freitas, S R., Longo, K M., and Andreae, M O.: Impact of including the plume rise of vegetation fires in numerical simulations of associated atmospheric pollutants, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L17808, doi:10.1029/2006GL026608, 2006. Freitas, S. R., Longo, K. M., Chatfield, R., Latham, D., Silva Dias, M. A. F., Andreae, M. O., Prins, E., Santos, J. C., Gielow, R., and Carvalho Jr., J. A.: Including the sub-grid scale plume rise of vegetation fires in low resolution atmospheric transport models, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 3385–3398, 2007. Friedl, M A., McIver, D K., Hodges, J. C F., Zhang, X., Muchoney, D., Strahler, A H., Woodcock, C E., Gopal, S., A Schnieder, A C., Baccini, A., Gao, F., and Schaaf, C.: Global land cover from MODIS: Algorithms and early results, Remote Sens. Environ., 83, 135–148, 2002. Fromm, M., Alfred, J., Hoppel, K., Hornstein, J., Bevilacqua, R., Shettle, E., Servranckx, R., Li, Z., , and Stocks, B.: Observations of Boreal Forest Fire Smoke in the Stratosphere by POAM III, SAGE II, and Lidar in 1998, Geophys. Res. Lett., 27, 1407–1410, 2000. Fromm, M., Bevilacqua, R., Servranckx, R., Rosen, J., Thayer, J P., Herman, J., and Larko, D.: Pyro-cumulonimbus injection of smoke to the stratosphere: Observations and impact of a super blowup in northwestern Canada on 3–4 August 1998, J. Geophys. Res., 110, 1–16, doi:10.1029/2004JD005350, 2005. Generoso, S., Bey, I., Attié, J.-L., and Bréon, F.-M.: A satellite- and model-based assessment of the 2003 Russian fires: Impact on the Arctic region, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D15302, doi:10.1029/2006JD008344, 2007. Giglio, L., Descloitres, J., Justice, C O., and Kaufman, Y J.: An enhanced contextual fire detection algorithm for MODIS, Remote Sens. Environ., 87, 273–282, 2003. Giglio, L., Csiszar, I., and Justice, C O.: Global distribution and seasonality of active fires as observed with the Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors, J. Geophys. Res., 111, G02016, doi:10.1029/2005JG000142, 2006. Goode, J G., Yokelson, R J., Ward, D E., Susott, R A., Babbitt, R E., Davies, M A., and Hao, W M.: Measurements of excess O<sub>3</sub>, CO, CO<sub>2</sub>, CH<sub>4</sub>, C<sub>2</sub>H$_6$, C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub>, HCN, NO, NH<sub>3</sub>, HCOOH, CH<sub>3</sub>COOH, HCHO and CH<sub>3</sub>OH in 1997 Alaskan biomass burning plumes by airborne Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (AFTIR), \jgr, 105, 22147–22166, 2000. Guan, H., Chatfield, R. B., Freitas, S. R., Bergstrom, R. W., and Longo, K. M.: Modeling the effect of plume-rise on the transport of carbon monoxide over Africa with NCAR CAM, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 6801–6812, 2008. Holton, J R.: An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology, Elsevier New York, 1992. Honrath, R E., Owen, R C., Val Martin, M., Reid, J S., Lapina, K., Fialho, P., Dziobak, M P., Kleissl, J., and Westphal, D L.: Regional and hemispheric impacts of anthropogenic and biomass burning emissions on summertime CO and \ozone in the North Atlantic lower free troposphere, \jgr, 109, D24310, \doi10.1029/2004JD005147, 2004. Hyer, E J., Allen, D J., and Kasischke, E S.: Examining injection properties of boreal forest fires using surface and satellite measurements of CO transport, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D18307, doi:10.1029/2006JD008232, 2007. Ichoku, C., Giglio, L., Wooster, M J., and Remner, L.: Global characterization of biomass-burning patterns using satellite measurements of fire radiative energy, Remote Sens. Environ., 112, 2950–2962, 2008. Justice, C O., Giglio, L., Korontzi, S., Owens, J., Morisette, J., Roy, D., Descloitres, J., Alleaume, S., Petitcolin, F., and Kaufman, Y.: The MODIS fire products, Remote Sens. Environ., 83, 244––262, 2002. Kahn, R A., Li, W.-H., Moroney, C., Diner, D J., Martonchik, J V., and Fishbein, E.: Aerosol source plume physical characteristics from space-based multi-angle imaging, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D11205, doi:10.1029/2006JD007647, 2007. Kahn, R A., Chen, Y., Nelson, D L., Leung, F.-Y., Li, Q., Diner, D J., and Logan, J A.: Wildfire Smoke Injection Heights – Two Perspectives from Space, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L04809, doi:10.1029/2007GL032165, 2008. Kasischke, E S., Hyer, E J., Novelli, P C., Bruhwiler, L P., French, N. H F., Suckhinin, A I., Hewson, J H., and Stocks, B J.: Influences of boreal fire emissions on Northern Hemisphere atmospheric carbon and carbon monoxide, \gbc, 19, GB1012, \doi10.1029/2004GB002300, 2005. Kaufman, Y., Ichoku, C., Giglio, L., Korontzi, S., Chu, D A., Hao, W M., Li, R.-R., and Justice, C O.: Fires and smoke observed from the Earth Observing System MODIS instrument—Products, validation, and operational use, Int. J. Remote Sens., 24, 1765––1781, 2003. Kaufman, Y J., Justice, C O., Flynn, L P., Kendall, J D., Prins, E M., Giglio, L., Ward, D E., Menzel, W P., and Setzer, A W.: Potential global fire monitoring from EOS-MODIS, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 32315–32338, 1998. Labonne, M., Breon, F.-M., and Chevallier, F.: Injection height of biomass burning aerosols as seen from a spaceborne lidar, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L11806, doi:10.1029/2007GL029311, 2007. Lamarque, J.-F., Edwards, D P., Emmons, L K., Gille, J C., Wilhelmi, O., Gerbig, C., Prevedel, D., Deeter, M N., Warner, J., Ziskin, D C., Khattatov, B., Francis, G L., Yudin, V., Ho, S., Mao, D., Chen, J., and Drummond, J R.: Identification of CO plumes from MOPITT data: Application to the August 2000 Idaho-Montana forest fires, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(13) 1688, doi:10.1029/2003GL017503, 2003. Lavoue, D., Liousse, C., Cachier, H., Stocks, B J., and Goldammer, J G.: Modeling of carbonaceous particles emitted by boreal and temperate wildfires at northern latitudes, J. Geophys. Res., 1035, 26871–26890, 2000. Leung, F.-Y T., Logan, J A., Park, R., Hyer, E., Kasischke, E., Streets, D., and Yurganov, L.: Impacts of enhanced biomass burning in the boreal forests in 1998 on tropospheric chemistry and the sensitivity of model results to the injection height of emissions, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D10313, doi:10.1029/2006JD008132, 2007. Lobert, J M. and Warnatz, J.: Emissions from the combustion process in vegetation, in: Fire in the environment: The ecological, atmospheric and climatic importance of vegetation fires, edited by Crutzen, P J. and Goldammer, J G., John Wiley and Sons Ltd., West Sussex, England, 1993. Lucchesi, R.: File Specification for GEOS-5 DAS Gridded Output Global Modeling and Assimilation Office Version 6.3, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. Published on the web, http://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/operations/GEOS5_V1_File_Specification.pdf, 2007. Luderer, G., Trentmann, J., Winterrath, T., Textor, C., Herzog, M., Graf, H. F., and Andreae, M. O.: Modeling of biomass smoke injection into the lower stratosphere by a large forest fire (Part II): sensitivity studies, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 5261–5277, 2006. Mazzoni, D., Logan, J A., Diner, D., Kahn, R., Tong, L., and Li, Q.: A data-mining approach to associating MISR smoke plume heights with MODIS fire measurements, Remote Sens. Environ., 107, 138–148, 2007. Miller, S. M., Matross, D. M., Andrews, A. E., Millet, D. B., Longo, M., Gottlieb, E. W., Hirsch, A. I., Gerbig, C., Lin, J. C., Daube, B. C., Hudman, R. C., Dias, P. L. S., Chow, V. Y., and Wofsy, S. C.: Sources of carbon monoxide and formaldehyde in North America determined from high-resolution atmospheric data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 7673–7696, 2008. Mims, S R., Kahn, R A., Moroney, C M., Gaitley, B J., Nelson, D L., and Garay, M J.: MISR stereo-heights of grassland fire smoke plumes in Australia, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 48, 25–35, \doi10.1109/TGRS.2009.2027114, 2010. Moroney, C., Davies, R., and Muller, J.-P.: Operational retrieval of cloud-top heights using MISR data, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 40, 1541–1546, 2002. Muller, J., Mandanayake, A., Moroney, C., Davies, R., Diner, D J., and Paradise, S.: MISR stereoscopic image matchers: Techniques and results, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 40, 1547–1559, 2002. Nelson, D., Averill, C., Boland, S., Morford, R., Garay, M., Thompson, C., Hall, J., Diner, D., and Camphell, H.: MISR Interactive eXplorer (MINX) v1.0 User's Guide, Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA. Published on the web, https://www.openchannelsoftware.com/projects/MINX, 2008a. Nelson, D., Lawshe, C., Mazzoni, D., Diner, D., and Kahn, R.: MISR Plume Height Climatology Project: Quality Statement and Error and Bias Analysis, Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA. Published on the web, http://www-misr2.jpl.nasa.gov/EPA-Plumes/suggestions4UsingData.cfm, 2008b. Nelson, D., Lawshe, C., Mazzoni, D., Diner, D., and Kahn, R.: MISR Plume Height Climatology Project: Suggestion for using the data, Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA. Published on the web, http://www-misr2.jpl.nasa.gov/EPA-Plumes/qualityStatement.cfm, 2008c. Nelson, D L., Chen, Y., Diner, D., Kahn, R A., and Mazzoni, D.: Example applications of the MISR INteractive eXplorer (MINX) software tool to wildfire smoke plume applications, Proc. SPIE, 7089, 2008d. Pfister, G G., Emmons, L K., Hess, P G., Honrath, R., Lamarque, J.-F., Martin, M V., Owen, R C., Avery, M A., Browell, E V., Holloway, J S., Nedelec, P., Purvis, R., Ryerson, T B., Sachse, G W., and Schlager, H.: Ozone production from the 2004 North American boreal fires, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D24S07, doi:10.1029/2006JD007695, 2006. Pielke, R A., Cotton, W R., Walko, R L., Tremback, C J., Lyons, W A., Grasso, L D., Nicholls, M E., Moran, M D., Wesley, D A., Lee, T J., and Copeland, J H.: A comprehensive meteorological modeling system - RAMS, Meteorol. Atmos. Phys, 49, 69–91, 1992. Pu, R., Li, Z., Gong, P., Csiszar, I., Fraser, R., Hao, W.-M., Kondragunt, S., and Weng, F.: Development and analysis of a 12-year daily 1-km forest fire dataset across North America from NOAA/AVHRR, Remote Sens. Environ., 108, 198–208, 2007. Real, E., Law, K S., Weinzierl, B., Fiebig, M., Petzold, A., Wild, O., Methven, J., Arnold, S., Stohl, A., Huntrieser, H., Roiger, A., Schlager, H., Stewart, D., Avery, M., Sachse, G., Browell, E., Ferrare, R., and Blake, D.: Processes influencing ozone levels in Alaskan forest fire plumes during long-range transport over the North Atlantic, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D10S41, doi:10.1029/2006JD007576, 2007. Rienecker, M., Suarez, M., Todling, R., Bacmeister, J., Takacs, L., Liu, H.-C., Gu, W., Sienkiewicz, M., Koster, R., Gelaro, R., Stajner, I., , and Nielsen, J.: Technical Report Series on Global Modeling and Data Assimilation: The GEOS-5 Data Assimilation System— Documentation of Versions 5.0.1, 5.1.0, and 5.2.0, Tech. Rep. NASA/TM–2008–104606, Vol 27, 2008. Sanchez-Ccoyllo, O R., Dias, P. L S., Andrade, M., and Freitas, S R.: Determination of O<sub>3</sub>, CO, and PM10 transport in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo, Brazil through synoptic-scale analysis of back trajectories, Meteorol. Atmos. Phys., 92, 83––93, 2006. Spracklen, D V., Mickley, L J., Logan., J A., Hudman, R C., Yevich, R., Flannigan, M D., and Westerling, A L.: Impacts of climate change from 2000 to 2050 on wildfire activity and carbonaceous aerosol concentrations in the western United States, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D2030, \doi10.1029/2008JD010966, 2009. Stocks, B J., Fosberg, M A., Lynham, T J., Mearns, L., Wotton, B M., Yang, Q., Jin, J.-Z., Lawrence, K., Hartley, G R., Mason, J A., and McKenney, D W.: Climate change and forest fire potential in Russian and Canadian boreal forests, Clim. Change, 38, 1–13, 1998. Stocks, B J., Mason, J A., Todd, J B., Bosch, E M., Wotton, B M., Amiro, B D., Flannigan, M D., Hirsch, K G., Logan, K A., Martell, D L., and Skinner, W R.: Large forest fires in Canada, 1959–1997, \jgr, 108, 108(D1), 8149, \doi10.1029/2001JD000484, 2003. Stull, R B.: An introduction to boundary layer meteorology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordretcht, The Netherlands, 1988. The Wilderness Society: 2002 wildfire season at a glance: Historic drought, historic fires, Tech. Rep. vol 1, 2003. Trentmann, J., Andreae, M O., Graf, H.-F., Hobbs, P V., Ottmar, R D., and Trautmann, T.: Simulation of a biomass-burning plume: Comparison of model results with observations, J. Geophys. Res., 107, D24013, doi:10.1029/2001JD000410, 2002. Trentmann, J., Luderer, G., Winterrath, T., Fromm, M. D., Servranckx, R., Textor, C., Herzog, M., Graf, H.-F., and Andreae, M. O.: Modeling of biomass smoke injection into the lower stratosphere by a large forest fire (Part I): reference simulation, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 5247–5260, 2006. Turquety, S., Logan, J A., Jacob, D J., Hudman, R C., Leung, F Y., Heald, C L., Yantosca, R M., Wu, S., Emmons, L K., Edwards, D P., and Sachse, G W.: Inventory of boreal fire emissions for North America in 2004: Importance of peat burning and pyroconvective injection, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D12S03, doi:10.1029/2006JD007281, 2007. Val~Martin, M., Honrath, R., Owen, R C., Pfister, G., Fialho, P., and Barata, F.: Significant enhancements of nitrogen oxides, ozone and aerosol black carbon in the North Atlantic lower free troposphere resulting from North American boreal wildfires, \jgr, 111, D23S60, \doi10.1029/2006JD007530, 2006. Van Wagner, C E.: Development and structure of the Canadian forest fire, Weather index system, Tech. Rep. Canadian Forest Service, Forestry Technical Report 35, 37 p., 1987. Wofsy, S C., Sachse, G W., Gregory, G L., Blake, D R., Bradshaw, J D., Sandholm, S T., Singh, H B., Barrick, J A., Harriss, R. C. R C., Talbot, R W., Shipham, M A., Browell, E V., Jacob, D J., and Logan, J A.: Atmospheric chemistry in the Arctic and subarctic: Influence of natural fires, industrial emissions, and stratospheric inputs, \jgr, 97, 16,731–16,746, 1992. Wotawa, G. and Trainer, M.: The influence of Canadian forest fires on pollutant concentrations in the United States, Science, 288(5464), 324–328, 2000. Zhang, X. and Kondragunta, S.: Temporal and spatial variability in biomass burned areas across the USA derived from the GOES fire product, Remote Sens. Environ., 112, 2886–2897, 2008.