MERRA2 FWI

Description: The Global Fire WEather Database (GFWED) integrates different weather factors influencing the likelihood of a vegetation fire starting and spreading. It is based on the Fire Weather Index (FWI) System, the most widely used fire weather system in the world. The FWI System was developed in Canada, and is composed of three moisture codes and three fire behavior indices. The moisture codes capture the moisture content of three generalized fuel classes and the behavior indices reflect the spread rate, fuel consumption and intensity of a fire if it were to start. Details on the development and testing of GFWED can be found in Field et al. (2015) and evaluation of GFWED products in Field (2020a). Applications of the FWI System can be found in Taylor and Alexander (2006) and technical descriptions are provided by van Wagner (1987) and Dowdy et al. (2009).

Organization: NASA

Spatial resolution: ~50-km (0.5-deg x 0.625-deg)

Time Span: 1980-04-02 to Present (updated daily)

Variables:

Fire Weather Index (FWI)

Website:

Earth Engine Community Catalog:

This MERRA2 FWI dataset has been ingested into Earth Engine by Climate Engine and is available for use through asset id projects/climate-engine-pro/assets/ce-merra2_fwi-daily.
Coming soon to the Earth Engine Community Catalog.

References:

Field, R.D., A.C. Spessa, N.A. Aziz, A. Camia, A. Cantin, R. Carr, W.J. de Groot, A.J. Dowdy, M.D. Flannigan, K. Manomaiphiboon, F. Pappenberger, V. Tanpipat, and X. Wang, 2015: Development of a global fire weather database. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 1407-1423, doi:10.5194/nhess-15-1407-2015.
MERRA-2 Overview: The Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2), Ronald Gelaro, et al., 2017, J. Clim., doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0758.1