Utilization of NOAA AVHRR for assessing the determinants of savanna fire distribution in Burkina Faso

Abstract

Temporal and spatial patterns of active fires, detected using NOAA AVHRR LAC data, in Burkina Faso are identified and related to vegetation, tree cover and land use classes. Initially, fires are classified into early and late dry season fires (EDSF and LDSF). Early dry season fires are defined as fires occurring earlier than 45 days after the start of the dry season, marked by a levelling out in the post-rainy season temperature increase, determined on the basis of surface temperature data derived from NOAA AVHRR. The date of the start of the dry season, defined in this way, is shown to be a linear function of the latitude. The distribution of fire occurrence are shown to display distinctively different patterns. These distribution patterns are related to information on vegetation class, woody biomass and land use intensity as well as net primary productivity, estimated from NOAA AVHRR rainy season data. It is shown that overall fire frequency and the ratio of early to late dry season fire activity depend strongly on net primary productivity, land use intensity and vegetation class. Late fires tend to occur mainly in agricultural areas, whereas early fires are much more frequent in areas of low land use intensity in the wooded savannas of southern Burkina Faso.