Articles | Volume 12, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-4681-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-4681-2019
Development and technical paper
 | 
08 Nov 2019
Development and technical paper |  | 08 Nov 2019

Modelling biomass burning emissions and the effect of spatial resolution: a case study for Africa based on the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED)

Dave van Wees and Guido R. van der Werf

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Revised manuscript accepted for GMD
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Cited articles

Akagi, S. K., Yokelson, R. J., Wiedinmyer, C., Alvarado, M. J., Reid, J. S., Karl, T., Crounse, J. D., and Wennberg, P. O.: Emission factors for open and domestic biomass burning for use in atmospheric models, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 4039–4072, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-4039-2011, 2011. 
Alleaume, S., Hély, C., Le Roux, J., Korontzi, S., Swap, R. J., Shugart, H. H., and Justice, C. O.: Using MODIS to evaluate heterogeneity of biomass burning in southern African savannahs: A case study in Etosha, Int. J. Remote Sens., 26, 4219–4237, https://doi.org/10.1080/01431160500113492, 2005. 
Andela, N. and van der Werf, G. R.: Recent trends in African fires driven by cropland expansion and El Niño to la Niña transition, Nat. Clim. Chang., 4, 791–795, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2313, 2014. 
Andreae, M. O. and Merlet, P.: Emission of trace gases and aerosols from biomass burning, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 15, 955–966, 2001. 
Archibald, S., Roy, D. P., van Wilgen, B. W., and Scholes, R. J.: What limits fire? An examination of drivers of burnt area in Southern Africa, Glob. Chang. Biol., 15, 613–630, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01754.x, 2009. 
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Short summary
For this paper, a novel high spatial-resolution fire emission model based on the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED) modelling framework was developed and compared to a coarser-resolution version of the same model. Our findings highlight the importance of fine spatial resolution when modelling global-scale fire emissions, especially considering the comparison of model pixels to individual field measurements and the model representation of heterogeneity in the landscape.
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