Copernicus Global Land Operations – Lot 1 Date Issued: 02.05.2017 Issue: I1.40
Copernicus Global Land Operations
“Vegetation and Energy” ”CGLOPS-1”
Framework Service Contract N° 199494 (JRC)
PRODUCT USER MANUAL
BURNED AREA AND SEASONALITY
COLLECTION 300M
VERSION 1
Issue 1.40
Organization name of lead contractor for this deliverable:
Book Captain: Bruno Smets (VITO)
Contributing Authors: Kevin Tansey (Univ. Leicester)
Davy Wolfs (VITO)
Tim Jacobs (VITO)
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Dissemination Level PU Public X
PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)
RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services)
CO Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)
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Document Release Sheet
Book captain: Bruno Smets
Sign Date 02.05.2017
Approval: Roselyne Lacaze Sign Date 25.09.2017
Endorsement: Michael Cherlet Sign Date
Distribution: Public
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Change Record
Issue/Rev Date Page(s) Description of Change Release
24.02.2016 All First issue I1.00
I1.00 16.03.2016
16
17
19, 20
Include Section 3.4 Roadmap
Include Table 2 Versioning
Include Table 4 and Table 5 of netCDF attributes
I1.10
I1.10 20.04.2016 18-23 Update file format and file content sections I1.20
I1.20 06.07.2016
15
17
27 29
Clarifications after external review:
- Limitations of the product
- Description of format
- Explanation of season event database file
- Add reference to quality assessment report
I1.30
I.30 02.05.2017 15,16,32
19,23
Updates for water masking
Added description of NetCDF Time Grid layer I1.40
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... 8
1 Background of the document ............................................................................................... 9
1.1 Scope and Objectives............................................................................................................... 9
1.2 Content of the document......................................................................................................... 9
1.3 Related documents ................................................................................................................. 9
1.3.1 Applicable documents .................................................................................................................................. 9
1.3.2 Input .............................................................................................................................................................. 9
1.3.3 External documents .................................................................................................................................... 10
2 Methodology Description .................................................................................................. 11
2.1 Overview .............................................................................................................................. 11
2.2 The retrieval Methodology .................................................................................................... 11
2.2.1 Basic underlying assumptions ..................................................................................................................... 11
2.2.2 Evolution of the method from SPOT VGT to PROBA-V Data ....................................................................... 12
2.3 Limitations of the Product ..................................................................................................... 14
2.4 Roadmap .............................................................................................................................. 14
3 Product Description ........................................................................................................... 15
3.1 File naming ........................................................................................................................... 15
3.2 File Format ............................................................................................................................ 16
3.3 Product Content .................................................................................................................... 17
3.3.1 Data File ...................................................................................................................................................... 17
3.3.2 Quicklook .................................................................................................................................................... 25
3.4 Product Characteristics .......................................................................................................... 26
3.4.1 Projection and Grid Information ................................................................................................................. 26
3.4.2 Spatial Information ..................................................................................................................................... 26
3.4.3 Temporal Information ................................................................................................................................. 26
3.4.4 Data Policies ................................................................................................................................................ 26
3.4.5 Contacts ...................................................................................................................................................... 28
4 Validation ......................................................................................................................... 29
5 References ........................................................................................................................ 30
6 Annex: Review of Users Requirements ............................................................................... 31
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List of Figures
Figure 1: Quicklook color coding ................................................................................................... 26
List of Tables Table 1: Explanation in version numbering and recommendations for using efficiently the products
.............................................................................................................................................. 15
Table 2: Data file content of the Burned Area products. ................................................................ 17
Table 3: Description of netCDF file attributes ................................................................................ 18
Table 4: Description of netCDF layer attributes ............................................................................. 19
Table 5: Description of netCDF attributes for coordinate dimensions (latitudes and longitudes) .... 20
Table 6: Description of netCDF attributes for time coordinate variable .......................................... 20
Table 7: Description of netCDF attributes for the grid mapping variable ........................................ 21
Table 8: GCOS requirements for Burned Area as Essential Climate Variable (GCOS-154, 2011) 32
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List of Acronyms
ATBD Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document
BA300 Burned Area 333m
CEOS Committee on Earth Observation System
CF Climate & Forecast conventions
CGLS Copernicus Global Land Service
CP Contaminated Pixel
ECV Essential Climate Variable
FDOB First Date of Burn
JRC European Commission Joint Research Centre
GCOS Global Climate Observing System
GIO GMES Initial Operations
GIF Graphic Interchange Format
GLS Global Land Survey
JRC Joint Research Centre
L3JRC Level3 Burned Area Algorithm from JRC
LPV Land Product Validation Group of CEOS
MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer
MODIS MCD45A1 MODIS global monthly burned area product Level 3 gridded 500 m
NetCDF Network Common Data Form
NMOD Number of Observations
NRT Near Real Time
PROBA-V VEGETATION sensor onboard PROBA platform
PUM Product User Manual
QAR Quality Assessment Report
S1 1-Daily Synthesis
SPOT Système Pour l’Observation de la Terre
SSD Service Specifications Document
SVP Service Validation Plan
SWIR Short Wave Infrared band
TOA Top Of the Atmosphere
VGT VEGETATION sensor onboard SPOT4/5
WGS World Geodetic System
VITO Vlaamse Instelling Voor Technologisch Onderzoek (Flemish Institute for Technological Research)
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Copernicus Global Land Service (CGLS) is earmarked as a component of the Land service to
operate “a multi-purpose service component” that provides a series of bio-geophysical products on
the status and evolution of land surface at global scale. Production and delivery of the parameters
take place in a timely manner and are complemented by the constitution of long term time series.
From 1st January 2013, the Copernicus Global Land Service is providing Essential Climate
Variables like the Leaf Area Index (LAI), the Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active
Radiation absorbed by the vegetation (FAPAR), the surface albedo, the Land Surface
Temperature, the soil moisture, the burnt areas, the areas of water bodies, and additional
vegetation indices, are generated every hour, every day or every 10 days on a reliable and
automatic basis from Earth Observation satellite data.
This Product User Manual (PUM) describes the Burned Area (BA) Collection 300m product
Version 1 derived from PROBA-V daily synthesis data. The product is calculated daily at 333 m
(1/336°) resolution. It is made available to the user every 10 days in near-real time i.e. within 3
days after the last acquisition of the dekad. The product has been validated according to CEOS
Land Product Validation protocols that have been published in the open-access, peer-reviewed
literature (Padilla et al. 2014, 2015, 2017).
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1 BACKGROUND OF THE DOCUMENT
1.1 SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES
The Product User Manual (PUM) is the primary document that users have to read before handling
the products.
It gives an overview of the product characteristics, in terms of algorithm, technical characteristics,
and main validation results.
1.2 CONTENT OF THE DOCUMENT
This document is structured as follows:
Chapter 2 summarizes the retrieval methodology
Chapter 3 describes the technical properties of the product
Chapter 4 summarizes the results of the quality assessment
The users’ requirements, and the expected performance, are recalled in Annex.
1.3 RELATED DOCUMENTS
1.3.1 Applicable documents
AD1: Annex I – Technical Specifications JRC/IPR/2015/H.5/0026/OC to Contract Notice 2015/S
151-277962 of 7th August 2015
AD2: Appendix 1 – Copernicus Global land Component Product and Service Detailed Technical
requirements to Technical Annex to Contract Notice 2015/S 151-277962 of 7th August 2015
AD3: GIO Copernicus Global Land – Technical User Group – Service Specification and Product
Requirements Proposal – SPB-GIO-3017-TUG-SS-004 – Issue I1.0 – 26 May 2015.
1.3.2 Input
Document ID Descriptor
CGLOPS1_SSD Service Specifications of the Copernicus Global Land
Service.
CGLOPS1_SVP Service Validation Plan of the Copernicus Global
Land Service.
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CGLOPS1_ATBD_BA300m-V1 Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document of the
Collection 300m BA Version1 product derived from
PROBA-V data
CGLOPS1_VR_BA300m-V1-V2 Validation report on Collection 300m Burned Area
PROBA-V Version 1 and Version 2 products
GIOGL1_QAR_BA1km-V1 Quality assessment report on Collection 1km burned
Area PROBA-V Version 1 products.
1.3.3 External documents
ED1: PROBA-V Products User Manual, version 1.3, http://www.vito-
eodata.be/PDF/image/PROBAV-Products_User_Manual.pdf
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2 METHODOLOGY DESCRIPTION
2.1 OVERVIEW
The successful implementation of the L3JRC algorithm to produce operational, near-real time,
global products from SPOT VGT to PROBA-V 1km products and finally to PROBA-V 333m input
data products required a number of algorithm evolutions. This included, from SPOT-VGT to
PROBA-V 1km, removing the need to use global land cover products in the processing,
improvement in the processing time, improvement in the cloud masking process and modification
for near-real time production. In addition, a seasonality metric was introduced to provide estimates,
of the start, peak and end of the fire season within a 1-degree grid. Initial operations within the
Copernicus Global Land Service demonstrated that the algorithm could be implemented in a full
automated manner to produce a data set over 15 years in length with SPOT VGT, and then
continued with PROBA-V.
Evolution to the PROBA-V 333m input data set required fewer changes to the algorithm apart from
taking into account data sets that were effectively 9x larger than previously considered.
Quality monitoring and quality assessment activities have demonstrated the usability of the product
through a robust CEOS compliant validation exercise [CGLOPS1_VR_BA300m-V1-V2].
2.2 THE RETRIEVAL METHODOLOGY
The retrieval algorithm comprises 4 main parts. Part 1 contains the extraction of the input data from
its native format. Part 2 contains the pre-processing of the data. Part 3 contains the burned area
algorithm, and Part 4 contains the season metric computation.
2.2.1 Basic underlying assumptions
The assumptions we made about source data and processing chain are that:
• The satellite platform (PROBA), which has a polar sun synchronous orbit with 5 days
repeat, is sufficient coverage for detecting daily (or 10 day composite) burns using the
burned area algorithm.
• S1 (daily synthesis) or atmospherically corrected top of canopy surface reflectance data is
available.
• The input data used is consistent and has been corrected for sensor drift / decay etc.
• The PROBA-V input data is radiometric and geometrical corrected based on calibration
parameters from the raw sensor data, and hence provide consistent values over time.
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1. The geometrical file contains the viewing directions for one or several spectral
bands at different latitudes, and the translations at different latitudes between the
other spectral bands and the spectral band for which viewing directions are
delivered;
2. the radiometric file contains detector quality indicators, inter-detector equalization
coefficients, dark currents, non-linearity coefficients;
3. the absolute calibration file contains absolute calibration coefficients, solar
equivalent irradiance, analogue gain used during corrections.
• Pre-processing has the ability to identify non contaminated pixels by extracting cloud / cloud
shadow / snow / topographic shadow and any pixels identified as not being of optimal
quality. Pre-processing also removes observations (pixels) made at viewing zenith angles
greater than 45 degrees. Topographic shadow is established with the use of a Digital
Elevation Model.
• A suitable land-sea-water mask is available that reduces the level of commission observed
around coastal areas.
• The burned area algorithm is consistent at picking up the drop in reflectance in the near
infrared wavelengths which forms the main component of the detection algorithm.
• The processing is applied to the full year over the majority of the Earth’s surface. However,
during the winter period in northern latitudes, there are times when the algorithm is
switched off.
• The pixel spacing is 0.00297619047619047 degrees. This is in fact 1/3 of the pixel size of
the 1km PROBA-V products.
2.2.2 Evolution of the method from SPOT VGT to PROBA-V Data
The differences between the implementation of the Collection 1km algorithm and the Collection
300m algorithm are minimal and can be summarised as follows:
17 iterations of the land-sea mask program are required to fit an appropriate mask around
all of the major water bodies. In the PROBA-V 1km algorithm, it was 6 iterations. This is
because there is an equivalent factor of 3 between 1km and 333m products.
The cloud shadow mask programme had to be edited to take into account the new pixel
size that was different to the PROBA-V 1km algorithm.
For the sun shadow mask that is caused by topographic relief with reference to the sun’s
position, the Collection 1km algorithm used a 1km GTOPO30 elevation model. Based on
user feedback and the availability of higher resolution elevation models the following
product and process was undertaken. The method to compute the pixels affected by sun
shadow remained the same – only the underlying elevation model (from which slope and
aspect were derived) was changed. The DEM was obtained from the Global Land Survey
(GLS) DEM (http://glcf.umd.edu/data/glsdem/) at a pixel spacing of ~90m. The global
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mosaic was warped into the 333m PROBA-V pixel spacing and bounding coordinates, then
the no_data values were adjusted (otherwise the aspect/slope would have created null
values). From this resampled DEM, the aspect and slope products were derived that were
used as input into the method to derive pixels affected by sun shadow.
In a revision implemented in March 2017, false commissioning of pixels of burned area that
were located at the shorelines of water bodies and large rivers were masked out. Two
masks are used to resolve this issue:
o The first is a static water mask, based on the JRC’s Global Surface Water product
(https://global-surface-water.appspot.com/) ‘Yearly Seasonality’ dataset, accessible
through the Google Earth Engine platform (asset ID: JRC/GSW1_0/YearlyHistory)
(Pekel et al., 2016). Large water bodies, which have no data in the Global Surface
Water product, are masked by overlaying the Global Administrative Unit Layers
(GAUL) coastal boundaries vector (http://www.fao.org/geonetwork). The resulting
static mask reflects the static water bodies, such as oceans, lakes and river
networks, whose borders may affect the quality of the burnt area detection.
o The second is a dynamic water mask, based on the Water Bodies dataset of the
Copernicus Global Land Water Bodies 300 m product
(http://land.copernicus.eu/global/products/wb300). This product reflects the dynamic
nature and changing shape and size of water bodies that may affect the quality of
the burnt area detection.
The burnt area algorithm considers a pixel as water if it is marked as such in either the
static or dynamic water mask.
The most critical change affects the window over which the statistical testing for burned
area detection is made. To place this modification in a historical context, the original L3JRC
algorithm (2001-2004) implemented the algorithm over a 200x200 pixel window. In the
CGLS SPOT VGT and PROBA 1km products, this was modified to a pixel window of
112x112 pixels that corresponded with a 1 degree grid cell. Due to the revised pixel
spacing, the equivalent of 9 pixels at 333m resolution covering an original 1km pixel, the
window size has been changed to 168x168 pixels. This corresponds to an area of 0.5x0.5
degrees. The implications of this modification are that fire seasonality data is now reported
at a grid cell size of 0.5 degrees (instead of 1 degree). This means that fire seasonality is
being resolved to an improved spatial detail (from 1 degree to 0.5 degree reporting). This
would appear to be a logical outcome when higher resolution data is being used as input.
Reporting fire activity at 0.5 degree resolution is similar to that of the ESA CCI-Fire grid
product. Both raster and ASCII text file output of the seasonality metric reflect these
changes.
The majority of the season metric computation section of the processing chain does not
need to be modified because the new grid cell spacing that is reported (0.5 degree grid) is
set at the beginning of the processing. It is necessary however to set the number of pixels
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describing the threshold where a fire season starts and ends. This is 2% of the total area
within a 0.5 degree grid cell. At 333m, this equates to 565 pixels.
The following characteristics of the Collection 1km algorithm are retained:
o Optimised data pre-processing across parallel CPUs.
o Continuity with the HDF5 format of the input data.
o C scripting language has been retained.
o Quality flags from the Quality Layer in the product are utilised. Bespoke methods for
cloud and snow masking are retained.
o Masking based on time of year and latitude is retained.
o Algorithm reflectance detection thresholds are maintained.
o Season metric computation is retained.
A complete description of the algorithm for mapping burned area is described in the ATBD
[CGLOPS1_ATBD_BA300m-V1].
2.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE PRODUCT
The algorithm relies of the production and delivery of quality layers in the PROBA-V data set and
without these being available the algorithm would not work. It uses fixed thresholds that have been
developed for the SPOT VGT sensor and evolved to the PROBA 1km data set and now further
established for the 333m data set. Although imaging bands from PROBA are similar there is a
slight offset in the Middle Infrared band (SWIR). Quality assessment exercise has been undertaken
that shows the products are useable. The land/water mask that ships with the PROBA data is not
very detailed or accurate as described above.
The processing is applied to the full year over the majority of the Earth’s surface. However, during
the winter period in northern latitudes, there are times when the algorithm is switched off:
Latitudes north of 51° during the period from 1 April to 31 May
Latitudes north of 51° during the period from 1 September to 30 September.
Latitudes north of 30° during the period from 1 October to 31 March.
Latitudes south of 30° during the period from 1 April to 30 September.
2.4 ROADMAP
The Collection 300m of BA products is currently generated from the PROBA-V sensor data at
333m resolution.
The Copernicus Global Land service will continue the 300m production through the Sentinel-3
mission. The adaptation of the retrieval methodology to Sentinel-3 is planned and will be performed
in the next months. The data from both Sentinel 3A and Sentinel-3B will be merged to maintain a
daily coverage of the globe and to continue the NRT production.
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3 PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
3.1 FILE NAMING
The Burned Area Collection 300m Version 1 products follow the naming standard:
c_gls_BA300_<YYYYMMDDHHmm>_<AREA>_<SENSOR>_V<VERSION>
where
<YYYYMMDDHHmm> gives the temporal location of the file. YYYY, MM, DD, HH, and mm
denote the year, the month, the day, the hour, and the minutes, respectively. The reference
date is the last day of the synthesis period, and hence presents the last day of detecting
burned areas. Note that HHmm is always 0000.
<AREA> gives the spatial coverage of the file. The Collection 300m products are by default
only available as global coverage (GLOBE). User specific regions can be obtained through
a custom order.
<SENSOR> provides the sensor used, hence PROBA-V
<VERSION> shows the processing line version used to generate these BA Collection 300m
products. The version denoted as M.m.r (e.g. 1.0.1), with ‘M’ representing the major version
(e.g. V1), ‘m’ the minor version (starting from 0) and ‘r’ the production run number (starting
from 1) (Table 1).
Table 1: Explanation in version numbering and recommendations for using efficiently the products
Versions Differences Recommendations
Major Significant change to the algorithm.
Do not mix various major versions in the
same applications, unless it is otherwise
stated.
Minor Minor changes in the algorithm Can be mixed in the same applications, but
require attention or modest modifications
Run Fixes to bugs and minor issues. Later
run automatically replaces former Consider it as a drop-in replacement
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3.2 FILE FORMAT
The Burned Area 300m Version 1 products are delivered as a set of files:
a multiband Network Common Data Form version 4 (netCDF4) with metadata attributes
compliant with version 1.6 of the Climate & Forecast conventions (CF V1.6) containing the
following full-resolution bands:
o the 10-day (dekad) composite of the Contaminated Pixel mask products
[CP_DEKAD]
o the 10-day (dekad) composited burned area product [BA_DEKAD]
o the first date of burn in the dekad [FDOB_DEKAD]
o the first date of burn just after fire season reset [FDOB_SEASON]
two textual ASCII files, with tab/comma delimiter, describing the seasonality metrics:
o The season status
o The season event database
an xml file containing the metadata conform to INSPIRE2.1.
For a more user-friendly view of the XML contents in a browser, an XSL transformation file
can downloaded at
http://land.copernicus.eu/global/sites/default/files/xml/c_gls_ProductSet.xsl. This file should
be placed in the same folder as the XML file.
A quicklook in a coloured GeoTIFF format. The quicklook is derived from the
FDOB_SEASON band.
Each netCDF4 file corresponds to a global region. As due to properties of the algorithm, there is no
processing of Burned Area data above 75° North and below 56° South.
When a user specific region is requested through custom ordering on the distribution portal
website, the netCDF4 file, the two textual report files and the GeoTIFF quicklook image will only
cover the requested region of interest.
Please note that the BA Collection 1km products are not provided as netCDF4, but as hdf5 files.
Future actions are planned to migrate the 1km products to the global netCDF4 format. Once the
migration is done, users will still be able to request hdf5 files through custom ordering on the
distribution portal.
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3.3 PRODUCT CONTENT
3.3.1 Data File
3.3.1.1 Image Files
An overview of the image files released in the burned area products can be seen in Table 2. Each
of the products is described in the following sections.
Layer name Description Physical
Min
Physical
Max
Digital
Max Scale_factor Add_Offset
CP_DEKAD
Dekad composite of the
Contaminated Pixels mask:
Number of observation not
used in the dekad
0
Nb of
days in
the
dekad
Nb of
days in
the
dekad
1 0
BA_DEKAD Dekad composite of the
burned area detection 0 1 1 1 0
FDOB_DEKAD First date of burn in the dekad 33289 65365 65365 1 0
FDOB_SEASON First date of burn just after the
season reset 33289 65365 65365 1 0
Table 2: Data file content of the Burned Area products.
Notes:
The physical value (PV) are derived from the digital number (DN) using the relation: PV =
scale_factor * DN + Add_offset.
All layers share identical specific values (flags) such as 0 for no detection (or season reset),
254 for ocean and 255 for missing tiles.
The values of FDOB_DEKAD and FDOB_SEASON are stored as YYDDD in the range
[33289, 65365] where YY represents the Julian calendar year since 1980 and DDD is the
day of year. The value of 33289 represents October 16, 2013 which is the date of the first
nominal PROBA-V image.
The netCDF files contain a number of metadata attributes
on the file-level (Table 3);
on the layer-level (Table 4);
at the level of the standard dimension variables for latitude (‘lat’) and longitude (‘lon’),
holding one value per row or column respectively (Table 5);
at the level of standard coordinate variable for time dimension (‘time’), holding one value for
the reference or nominal date (Table 6);
at the level of the grid mapping (spatial reference system) variable (‘crs’) (see Table 7).
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Attribute name Description Data
Type Example(s)
Conventions Version of the CF-Conventions used String CF-1.6
title A description of the contents of the
file String
10-daily Burnt Area 333M: GLOBE
2016-04-01T00:00:00Z
institution The name of the institution that
produced the product String VITO NV
source The method of production of the
original data String Derived from EO satellite imagery
history
A global attribute for an audit trail.
One line, including date in ISO-8601
format, for each invocation of a
program that has modified the
dataset.
String Processing line BA: 2016-04-12
references
Published or web based references
that describe the data or methods
used to produce it.
String http://land.copernicus.eu/global/produ
cts/ba
archive_facility Specifies the name of the institution
that archives the product String VITO
product_version Version of the product (VM.m.r) String V1.0.1
time_coverage_start Start date and time of the total
coverage of the data for the product. String 2016-04-01T00:00:00Z
time_coverage_end End date and time of the total
coverage of the data for the product. String 2016-04-10T23:59:59Z
platform Name(s) of the orbiting platform(s) String Proba-V
sensor Name(s) of the sensor(s) used String VEGETATION
identifier Unique identifier for the product String
urn:cgls:global:ba300_v1_333m:BA3
00_201604100000_GLOBE_PROBA
V_V1.0.1
parent_identifier
Identifier of the product collection
(time series) for the product in
Copernicus Global Land Service
metadata catalogue.
String urn:cgls:global:ba300_v1_333m
long_name Extended product name String Burnt Area
orbit_type Orbit type of the orbiting platform(s) String LEO
processing_level Product processing level String L3
processing_mode
Processing mode used when
generating the product (Near-Real
Time, Consolidated or
Reprocessing)
String Near Real Time
copyright
Text to be used by users when
referring to the data source of this
product in publications (copyright
notice)
String Copernicus Service information 2016
Table 3: Description of netCDF file attributes
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Attribute Description Data Type
Examples for BA_DEKAD layer
CLASS Dataset type String DATA
standard_name
A standardized name that references a
description of a variable’s content in
CF-Convention’s standard names table.
Note that each standard_name has
corresponding unit (from Unidata’s
udunits).
String burned_area_fraction
long_name
A descriptive name that indicates a
variable’s content. This name is not
standardized. Used when a standard
name is not available.
String
units
Units of a the variable’s content, taken
from Unidata’s udunits library.
Empty or omitted for dimensionless
variables.
Fractions should be indicated by
scale_factor.
String
valid_range
Smallest and largest values for the
variable.
Missing data is to be represented by
one or several values outside of this
range.
Same as data
variable 0, 1
_FillValue
Single value used to represent missing
or undefined data and to pre-fill
memory space in case a non-written
part of data is read back.
Value must be outside of valid_range.
Same as data
variable 255
missing_value
Single value used to represent missing
or undefined data, for applications
following older versions of the
standards.
Value must be outside of valid_range.
Same as data
variable 255
grid_mapping Reference to the grid mapping variable String crs
flag_values Provides a list of the flag values. Used
in conjunction with flag_meanings.
Same as data
variable 254, 255
flag_meanings Descriptive words or phrases for each
flag value.
String (blank
separated list) Ocean Missing_data
Table 4: Description of netCDF layer attributes
Physical values are retrieved from the digital numbers by first multiplying with the scale_factor and
then adding the add_offset. For the four layers in Burned Area products, the scale_factor is 1 and
add_offset is 0 and hence omitted from the attributes.
For the two FDOB layers, a long_name is currently not available.
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Attribute Description Data Type
Example
CLASS Dataset type String DIMENSION_SCALE
DIMENSION_
LABELS Label used in netCDF4 library String lon
NAME Short name String lon
standard_name
A standardized name that references a
description of a variable’s content in
CF-Convention’s standard names table.
Note that each standard_name has
corresponding unit (from Unidata’s
udunits).
String longitude
long_name
A descriptive name that indicates a
variable’s content. This name is not
standardized. Used when a standard
name is not available (FDOB layers).
String longitude
units Units of a the variable’s content, taken
from Unidata’s udunits library. String degrees_east
axis Identifies latitude, longitude, vertical, or
time axes. String X
_CoordinateAxis
Type Label used in GDAL library String Lon
Table 5: Description of netCDF attributes for coordinate dimensions (latitudes and longitudes)
Attribute Description Data Type
Example
CLASS Dataset type String DIMENSION_SCALE
NAME Short name String time
long_name
A descriptive name that indicates a
variable’s content. This name is not
standardized. Required when a
standard name is not available.
String Time
units Units of a the variable’s content, taken
from Unidata’s udunits library. String
Days since
1970-01-01 00:00:00
axis Identifies latitude, longitude, vertical, or
time axes. String T
calendar
Specific calendar assigned to the time
variable, taken from the Unidata’s
udunits library.
String standard
Table 6: Description of netCDF attributes for time coordinate variable
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Attribute Description Data Type
Example
GeoTransform
Six coefficients for the affine transformation
from pixel/line space to coordinate space,
as defined in GDAL’s GeoTransform
String
-180.0000000000
0.0029761905
0.0
80.0000000000
0.0
-0.0029761905
_CoordinateAxisTypes Label used in GDAL library String, blank
separated GeoX GeoY
_CoordinateTransform
Type Type of transformation String Projection
grid_mapping_name Name used to identify the grid mapping String latitude_longitude
inverse_flattening
Used to specify the inverse flattening (1/f)
of the ellipsoidal figure
associated with the geodetic datum and
used to approximate the
shape of the Earth
Float 298.257223563
long_name A descriptive name that indicates a
variable’s content. String coordinate reference system
longitude_of_prime_me
ridian
Specifies the longitude, with respect to
Greenwich, of the prime meridian
associated with the geodetic datum
Float 0.0
semi_major_axis
Specifies the length, in metres, of the semi-
major axis of the
ellipsoidal figure associated with the
geodetic datum and used to
approximate the shape of the Earth
Float 6378137.0
spatial_ref Spatial reference system in OGC’s Well-
Known Text (WKT) format String
GEOGCS["WGS
84",DATUM["WGS_1984",…
AUTHORITY["EPSG","4326"]]
Table 7: Description of netCDF attributes for the grid mapping variable
3.3.1.1.1 Contaminated Pixel dekad composite (CP_DEKAD)
The unsigned byte (8 bits) shows the number of observations not used to detect burns within a
given dekad, hence filtered out due to artefacts found in the pre-processing step. So, the lower the
value, the more observations are used to detect a burn. Missing tiles do not contribute to the
contaminated pixel dekad composite.
The physical range of CP_DEKAD is [0, <number of days in the dekad>], as is the Digital Number
range. The value indicates:
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0 = all days in the dekad provided data (CP mask = 0 for all days)
1 = one day in the dekad does not provide data
...
<number of days in the dekad> = no days in the dekad provided data, so the burn could not
be detected
254 = ocean flag
255 = no data present (missing tile) during entire dekad
3.3.1.1.2 Burned Area dekad composite (BA_DEKAD)
This unsigned byte (8 bits) indicates if the pixel has been detected as burned (1) at least once in
the dekad. Note that a value 0 does not necessarily mean the pixel was not burned; it might have
been filtered out by the number of contaminated observations (CP_DEKAD) mask. Missing tiles do
not contribute to the burned area dekad composite.
The value indicates:
0 = no burn scar detected in the dekad, either there has been no burn or CP_DEKAD
indicates that the pixels was contaminated each and every day in the dekad
1 = at least one burn scar detected in the dekad
254 = ocean flag
255 = no data present (missing tile) during entire dekad
3.3.1.1.3 First Day of Burn in the dekad (FDOB_DEKAD)
This unsigned integer (16 bits) provides the First Day of Burn (FDOB) in the given dekad.
The physical range of FDOB is [0, 65356], as is the Digital Number range. The value indicates:
0 = no burn scar detected in the dekad
254 = ocean flag
255 = no data present (missing tile) during entire dekad
YYDDD in range [33289, 65365] = the burn scar was detected at day YYDDD; where YY
represents the Julian calendar year since 1980 and DDD is day of year; YYDDD is a date in
the dekad
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E.g. a coding value of 36055 represents a FDOB date of 2016-02-24, and is present in the
file c_gls_BA300_201602290000_GLOBE_PROBAV_V1.0.1.nc:FDOB_DEKAD. Note that this
coding value will disappear in the next dekad, hence in the file
c_gls_BA300_201603100000_GLOBE_PROBAV_V1.0.1.nc:FDOB_DEKAD.
3.3.1.1.4 First Day of Burn just after Season Reset (FDOB_SEASON)
This unsigned integer (16 bits) provides the First Day of Burn (FDOB) over one or (typical) more
dekads within the season, hence a cumulated FDOB value. Dates are reset by seasonal resets.
The physical range of FDOB is [0, 65356], as is the Digital Number range. The value indicates
0 = no burn scar detected, or the burn was reset
254 = ocean flag
YYDDD in range [33289, 65365] = the burn scar was detected at day YYDDD; where YY
represents the Julian calendar year since 1980 and DDD is day of year
E.g. a coding value of 36055 represents a FDOB date of 2016-02-24, and will be present in
the file c_gls_BA300_201602290000_GLOBE_PROBAV_V1.0.1.nc:FDOB _SEASON. Note that
this coding value will re-appear in the next dekad, hence in the file
c_gls_BA300_201603100000_GLOBE_PROBAV_V1.0.1.nc:FDOB_SEASON, unless the season
has been reset during this last dekad.
3.3.1.2 Seasonality files
Both files use one line per 0.5 x 0.5 degree grid cell (168 x 168 pixels). Each line starts with its
longitude and latitude. The seasonality files use dekad numbers, where dekad 1 is the dekad
ending 19800110. Dekad counting starts in 1980. To calculate the date that is represented by a
dekad number, one could use:
Year = 1980 + ( (dekad number – 1) / 36)
Dekad_in_year = (dekad_number – (Year – 1980)*36)
3.3.1.2.1 Season Status file
This text file provides the main season metrics. For each 0.5 x 0.5 degree grid cell (168 x 168
pixels) is provided in this order:
longitude, latitude (centre of pixel)
fire season status :0 = out of season, 1 = in season (status),
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start of season dekad (sos), maximum of season dekad (smax), end of season dekad
(eos),
maximum count of 333x333 m pixels (area in 1/9 square km) detected as burned in season
inside the 0.5 x 0.5 degree grid cell (smax_no),
number of seasons since processing began (scount)
season reset mask : 0=reset; 1=no reset (sreset).
Note that the information is provided as detected, e.g. if a season-start was detected but not the
max or end yet, the sos number is provided while the smax and eos numbers are set to zero.
An example part of a season status file of dekad 1234 (the dekad ending 20140410, counted from
19800101) is shown below: longitude, latitude, status, dekad of start of season, dekad of max of
season, dekad of end of season, max count of season, number of seasons, reset flag.
Longitude Latitude status sos smax eos smax_no scount sreset
83.00000000 46.00000000 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
83.50000000 46.00000000 1 1234 1234 0 247 1 1
84.00000000 46.00000000 0 1232 1232 1234 535 2 0
It shows that the area of 83°E, 46°N is not in a season (first column = status = 0) and will not reset
the FDOB of its area (reset = 1).
The area of 83.5°E, 46°N is in season (status = 1), since the current dekad 1234. At dekad 1234, it
had its largest number of burned pixels, 247. Its end dekad is 0 as it has not ended yet. It counts a
single season (the second last column = 1). Also, as the season is still running, it will not reset the
FDOB.
The next area of 84°E, 46°N is not in season anymore but recently was. It had a season from
dekad 1232 to 1234, with a maximum of 535 pixels in dekad 1232. It counts 2 seasons in total.
The season reset flag indicates that seasonality data of the 0.5° x 0.5° cell is being reset.
3.3.1.2.2 Season Event database file
For each 0.5x0.5 degree grid cell (168 x 168 pixels), this file collects the seasons information. The
user can check the season_status file to learn the seasons status. For each half degree grid cell is
provided:
Longitude and Lattitude in degrees
For every ‘ended’ fire season, a triple data entry is added to the half degree grid cell:
Start_of_season dekad (sos) : the dekad that triggered the fire season start
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Peak_of_season dekad (pos): the dekad that shows the maximum count of pixels detected
as burned in the season, hence the dekad that corresponds to the smax_no of the
season_status file.
End_of_season dekad (eos) : the dekad that ended the fire season
Note this additional information is only provided when the season-end is detected. If no season-
end is detected yet, the information is left blank.
Note that multiple season-ends detections are represented by multiple triple data entries separated
by the character ‘;’.
An example part of a season_event_database file is described below: longitude, latitude, start of
season dekad (sos), peak of season dekad (pos), end of season dekad (eos):
Longitude Lattitude sos pos eos ; sos pos eos ; . .
35.00000000 46.00000000
35.50000000 46.00000000
36.00000000 46.00000000
36.50000000 46.00000000
37.00000000 48.00000000 1232 , 1232 , 1233 ;
37.50000000 48.50000000 1232 , 1234 , 1234 ; 1238 , 1239 , 1242
;
The dekad file shown above is of dekad 1234 (20140410). The first few lines, representing 35°E,
46°N to 36.5°E, 46°N, do not show a finished season. The user should check the season_status
file to see if the degree tile is in or out of a season.
In the area around 37°E, 48°N, a season started in dekad 1232 (20140320), had a peak in that
dekad, and lasted until dekad 1233 (20140331).
The grid cell 37.5°E, 48.5°N represents two seasons, a first one started in dekad 1232 (20140320)
and ended in dekad 1234. The second season started in dekad 1238 (20140520), with a peak at
1239 (20140601) and ended in 1242 (20140701). . Both areas are now out of season.
3.3.2 Quicklook
The quicklook geo-referenced tiff file is derived from the FDOB_SEASON band. The spatial
resolution is sub-sampled, using nearest neighbour resampling, to 5% in both directions, hence a
quicklook is 1/400th of the size of the data layer.
The quicklook is coded in 1 byte and provided with an embedded color table as presented in
Figure 1. As the original band is coded in 16 bits, a scale operation is performed to map all FDOB
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values into 255: there is no distinction anymore between different FDOB dates and it becomes an
indication that a burn scar has been detected during the active fire season. As a result, the value
of ‘water’ and ‘no data’ are one digit lower in the quicklook (0: land; water: 253, no data: 254, burn
scar: 255).
0 253 254 255
Figure 1: Quicklook color coding
3.4 PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS
3.4.1 Projection and Grid Information
The product is displayed in a regular latitude/longitude grid (plate carrée) with the ellipsoid WGS
1984 (Terrestrial radius=6378km). The resolution of the grid is 1/336°.
The reference is the centre of the pixel. It means that the longitude of the upper left corner of the
pixel is (pixel_longitude – angular_resolution/2.)
3.4.2 Spatial Information
The Burned Area Collection 300m Version 1 product is provided over the non-boreal world, hence
from longitude -180°E to +180°W and latitude +75°N to -56°S. Custom generated image files
covering latitude above +75°N and/or below -56°S will have areas without burned area data. The
corresponding pixels will be filled with no data values (255).
3.4.3 Temporal Information
The Burned Area Collection 300m Version 1 product is a 10-daily composite, updated daily with
date of new detected burn scars. The part “YYYYMMDDHHMM” of the product name gives the
date of the last day of the compositing period, hence the last day of a dekad.
The BA300 version 1.0 dataset is provided from the PROBA-V 333m input, based on detections
starting from 16/10/2013.
3.4.4 Data Policies
All users of the Copernicus Global Land service products benefit from the free and open access
policy as defined in the European Union’s Copernicus regulation (N° 377/2014 of 3 April 2014) and
Commission Delegated Regulation (N° 1159/2013), available on the Copernicus programme’s web
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site, http://www.copernicus.eu/library/detail/248). Products from legacy R&D projects are also
provided with free and open action.
This includes the following use, in so far that is lawful:
a) reproduction;
b) distribution;
c) communication to the public;
d) adaptation, modification and combination with other data and information;
e) any combination of points (a) to (d).
EU law allows for specific limitations of access and use in the rare cases of security concerns, protection of third party rights or risk of service disruption. By using Service Information the user acknowledges that these conditions are applicable to
him/her and that the user renounces to any claims for damages against the European Union
and the providers of the said Data and Information. The scope of this waiver encompasses
any dispute, including contracts and torts claims that might be filed in court, in arbitration
or in any other form of dispute settlement.
Where the user communicates to the public on or distributes the original PROBA-V BA Collection
300m products, he/she is obliged to refer to the data source with (at least) the following statement
(included as the copyright attribute of the netCDF file):
Copernicus Service information [Year]
With [Year]: year of publication
Where the user has adapted or modified the products, the statement should be:
Contains modified Copernicus Service information [Year]
For complete acknowledgement and credits, the following statement can be used:
“The product was generated by the Global Land Service of Copernicus, the Earth Observation
programme of the European Commission. The research leading to the current version of the
product has received funding from various European Commission Research and Technical
Development programmes. The product is based on PROBA-V 333m data ((c) ESA and distributed
by VITO).”
The user accepts to inform Copernicus about the outcome of the use of the above-mentioned
products and to send a copy of any publications that use these products to the following address:
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3.4.5 Contacts
The Burnt Areas Collection 300m products are available through the Copernicus Global Land
Service website at the address: http://land.copernicus.eu/global/products with contact information
(helpdesk) on http://land.copernicus.eu/global/contactpage
Accountable contact: European Commission Directorate-General Joint Research Center
Email address: [email protected]
Scientific & technical contact:
Email address: [email protected]
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4 VALIDATION
The Collection 300m burned area products have been subject to quality assessment processes
that are fully described in the document [CGLOPS1_VR_BA300m-V1-V2]. The procedures are fully
compliant with CEOS Land Product Validation protocols and the methodology to generate the
reference data has been published.
The Copernicus Near-Real Time Burned area product at 300m that is described here continues to
produce useable, meaningful and well characterised products for a range of users. In the validation
report [CGLOPS1_VR_BA300m-V1-V2], the products described here, that being Version 1.1
(CGLS_BA300_v1.1), is compared against a proposed v2 of the BA algorithm (CGLS_BA300_v2
that takes into account the information provided by an active fire product alongside the current
Collection 1km referred to as CGLS_BA_V1.5, current 300m BA Collection (CGLS_BA300_V1.0)
and MODIS-MCD64 Collection 6. Reference data used for validation is generated from pairs of
2014 Landsat images on a stratified random sampling generated.
The validation results show that all products are more accurate than the existing 1km
CGLS_BA_V1.5 product. A slight improvement in accuracy is seen between CGLS_BA300_v1.0
and CGLS_BA300_V1.1 (with the product described in this document being slightly more
accurate). The CGLS_BA300m_V1.1 has a slightly lower commission error (the intended outcome
of the edits that were made to the algorithm). It also has a slightly higher Oe compared with the
latter, so is being more conservative. Overall, a very slight increase in the Dice Coefficient (a
measure of accuracy in the burnt area class) is seen in the revised product.
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5 REFERENCES
Padilla, M., Olofsson, P., Stephen V., S., Tansey, K., & Chuvieco, E. (2017). Stratification and
sample allocation for reference burned area data. submitted to Remote Sensing of
Environment
Padilla, M., Stehman, S.V., & Chuvieco, E. (2014). Validation of the 2008 MODIS-MCD45 global
burned area product using stratified random sampling. Remote Sensing of Environment, 144,
187–196
Padilla, M., Stehman, S.V., Ramo, R., Corti, D., Hantson, S., Oliva, P., Alonso, I., Bradley, A.,
Tansey, K., Mota, B., Pereira, J.M., & Chuvieco, E. (2015). Comparing the Accuracies of
Remote Sensing Global Burned Area Products using Stratified Random Sampling and
Estimation. Remote Sensing of Environment, 160, 114-121
Pekel, J.-F., Cottam, A., Gorelick, N, Belward, A., High resolution mapping of the global surface
water and its long-term changes, Nature, 540, 418-422, 2016.
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6 ANNEX: REVIEW OF USERS REQUIREMENTS
According to the applicable document [AD2] and [AD3AD2], the user’s requirements relevant for
burned area are as follows.
Definition: surfaces where vegetation is damaged or destroyed by fires
Geometric properties:
o Pixel size of output data shall be defined on a per-product basis so as to facilitate
the multi-parameter analysis and exploitation.
o The baseline datasets pixel size shall be provided, depending on the final product,
at resolutions of 100m and/or 300m and/or 1km.
o The target baseline location accuracy shall be 1/3rd of the at-nadir instantaneous
field of view
o pixel co-coordinates shall be given for centre of pixel
Geographical coverage:
o Geographic projection: regular lat-long
o Geodetical datum: WGS84
o Coordinate position: centre of pixel
o Window coordinates:
Upper Left:180°W - 70°N
Bottom Right: 180°E - 50°S
Ancillary information:
o the per-pixel date of the individual measurements or the start-end dates of the
period actually covered
o quality indicators, with explicit per-pixel identification of the cause of anomalous
parameter result
Accuracy requirements:
o Baseline: wherever applicable the bio-geophysical parameters should meet the
internationally agreed accuracy standards laid down in document “Systematic
Observation Requirements for Satellite-Based Products for Climate”. Supplemental
details to the satellite based component of the “Implementation Plan for the Global
Observing System for Climate in Support of the UNFCCC”. GCOS-#154, 2011”
(Table 8).
o Target: considering data usage by that part of the user community focused on
operational monitoring at (sub-) national scale, accuracy standards may apply not
on averages at global scale, but at a finer geographic resolution and in any event at
least at biome level.
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Variable Horizontal
resolution
Temporal
resolution
Accuracy Stability
Burned
area
250m Daily
detection
15% (error of omission
and commission),
compared to 30m
observations
15% (error of omission and
commission), compared to
30m observations
Table 8: GCOS requirements for Burned Area as Essential Climate Variable (GCOS-154, 2011)
Other user requirements for burned area products come from FP7 project geoland2. The
requirements were for 10-day spatial products delineating the area burned over a period of several
years. These maps should be robustly validated where possible, given the constraints of high
resolution image availability. A seasonality metric, requested by users, has been specified and
provided. Frequency of observations of the land surface (cloud-free etc.) has also been included in
the product.