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Abstract
As part of SAFARI 2000, this study investigated fire severity associated with, and emissions released from, a wildfire that burned a total area of approximately 3200 km2 of semi‐arid savannahs in the region of Etosha National Park, Namibia. Percent tree cover derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data was used to scale up from site‐level field measurements to landscape‐level emission fields. Empirical relationships relating fuel load and combustion completeness to tree cover were developed from field observations. These relationships were coupled to the remotely sensed data to determine the emissions released over the entire area burned. Emissions from this single fire event were estimated to be 1.4×1012 g of CO2, 52.4×109 g of CO, 1.5×109 g of CH4, 1.85×109 g of non‐methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), and 2.4×109 g of particles less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5). A Normalized Burned Index difference (NBI diff), representative of fire severity and modified for MODIS data was used to assess the heterogeneity of the burned areas, but no significant correlation was found between this NBI diff and combustion completeness (CC).
Acknowledgements
This paper was part of the SAFARI 2000 ‘Southern African Regional Science Initiative’. This collective research effort was funded in part by the Southern Africa Validation of EOS programme (SAVE–NASA‐NAG5‐7266), the Interdisciplinary Science programme (IDS‐NASA‐NAG5‐9357), and several other collective grants (NASA‐NAG5‐7278, NASA‐NAG5‐7862, NASA‐NAG5‐7936, and NASA‐MODIS grant NAS‐531365). We greatly thank the Ecological Institute of Etosha National Park and especially Johannes for their helpful contribution to this project in providing logistic support, field security and scientific advices for this manuscript.