Assessing vegetation fires activity and its drivers in West-Central Africa using MODIS and TRMM data

We analyzed fire regimes for the 2002-2003 dry season in West and Central Africa using active fire counts derived from MODIS and TRMM data. Spatial and temporal descriptors were extracted to characterize the fire regimes. Statistics on fire occurrences per land-cover class were derived using the JRC-GLC2000 map. Cluster analysis was applied to characterize regional fire regimes. The number of fires detected by the two satellite sensors is considerably different but showed a good agreement in their spatial distribution. The analyses conducted confirm previous investigations on global and regional datasets regarding African fire regimes. The study may provide valuable information for the understanding of Western and Central Africa fire regimes, and for supporting land-cover change studies