ESA Fire_cci Burned Area data from medium resolution sensors
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Fire_cci Burned Area (BA) product v5.1 was obtained by combining spectral information from Terra MODIS (https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/dataset_discovery/modis/modis_products_table/mod09gq)and thermal information from MODIS active fires product (http://modis-fire.umd.edu/index.html).
Fire_cci BA v5.1 products are available at two different resolutions: pixel (approx. 250 m) and grid (0.25 degrees).

A previous version of this product (v5.0) was developed using the same input data as v.51, but with an earlier version of the burned area algorithm.
Previous versions of this product (v3.1 and v4.1) were obtained by combining spectral information from MERIS (http://earth.esa.int/instruments/meris/). 
It is not recomended to mix the burned area information from different versions, as they were obtained from different algorithms.
  
For further information, please refer to the Product User Guides available in the folder Docs, or in the Fire_cci website: https://www.esa-fire-cci.org/documents. You can also contact the project manager of the Project at mlucrecia.pettinari@uah.es.

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VERSION HISTORY

Version 5.1:
Was released on November 2018 (with periodic updates for later years), based on reflectance of MODIS data at 250m.
The most significant improvements compared to the previous version are:
	- The time series of the product was expanded to cover the period 2001-2020.
	- The improvement of the BA detection algorithm has allowed detecting much more burned area compared to FireCCI50.
	- An error in the pixel product corresponding to Area 2 (South America) where the northern part of the continent was cut has been fixed. 
	- The grid product is now delivered in monthly files, as requested by the users of the product.
	- The land cover information has been updated, and now uses LandCover CCI v2.0.7 yearly files.
	- The method for calculating the uncertainty has been improved.

Version 5.0:
Was released on February 2018, based on reflectance of MODIS data at 250m.
The most significant improvements compared to the previous version are: 
	- The source of reflectance information is now the Terra MODIS sensor, using mainly MOD09GQ data, complemented with MOD09GA and MOD14ML data.
	- The time series of the product was expanded to cover the period 2001-2016. 
	- The algorithm was significantly modified to use the new sources of data, improve BA identification, and improve performance.
	- The method for calculating uncertainty was improved, as well as the aggregation of the uncertainty to the grid product.
	- Land cover uses the three epochs of LandCover CCI v1.6.1.
	- The layers of the pixel product are now provided as individual GeoTIFF files inside a tar.gz file, to facilitate the handling of individual layers.
	- The grid product now includes a layer of fraction of burnable area (FBA), and the layer corresponding of fraction of observed area is expressed as a percentage of the FBA.

Version 4.1: 
Was released on July 2016, based on reflectance of MERIS data
The most significant improvements compared to the previous version are: 
	- The time series of the product was expanded to cover the period 2005-2011. 
	- The new version of the algorithm includes pixels that are burned twice in the same year, as it tackles monthly burned pixels. A pixel is considered burned twice in the same year when there is at least a five-month gap between the two dates when the algorithm identified it as burned. Otherwise, it is considered the same burn. 
	- The spatial resolution of the grid product has been increased from 0.5 to 0.25 degree resolution. 
	- Changes were made in geographical subsets of the final pixel product, avoiding overlapping subsets. Tile numbers have been changed (see section 2.5). 
	- The land cover classes are now consistent with the Land_Cover_cci product. 
	- Land cover is dynamic, using two different epochs to estimate the land cover prior to the burn. 
	- File name conventions were changed to reflect the changes in layers. 
	- NetCDF-CF metadata fields were improved and clarified. 

Version 3.1: was published in October 2014, covering the period 2006-2008. It was based on MERIS reflectance, and provided products at two different resolutions: pixel (approx. 300 m) and grid (0.5 degrees).