China Wildfire Emission (ChinaWED v1) for the period 2012–2022

Abstract. During the past decades, wildfires have undergone rapid changes while both the extent of fire activities and the resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from wildfires in China remain inadequately quantified. To explore national wildfire-induced emissions, we employed satellite-based data on burned vegetation to generate the China Wildfire Emission Dataset (ChinaWED). This dataset is constructed at monthly and kilometer scale under a consistent and quantifiable calculation framework, providing an average annual estimates of wildfire-induced GHG emissions of 78.13 ± 22.46 Tg CO₂, 279.47 ± 82.01 Gg CH₄, and 6.26 ± 1.67 Gg N₂O for the past decade. We observed significant decreases in both wildfire occurrences and emissions within forests and grasslands. This trend, however, is counteracted by increasing agricultural fires, which constitute the primary type accounting for at least half of the national total fire emissions. The seasonal cycle of wildfire GHG emissions show an evident apex occurring during the transition from mid-spring to early-summer. At the regional scale, Northeast, Southwest and East China emerge as hotspots for wildfire-induced emissions. Our study offers new insights into understanding China's wildfire dynamics and provides a detailed regional model for the wildfire greenhouse gas emissions over China.