Satellite hotspot is a useful tool used to identify fire occurrence (hotspots) through space-borne remote sensing. The data has shown that fire is an annual occurrence in the Southeast Asia region. Fire hotspot is most prominent in Indochina, comprising Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam during the boreal winter (Jan – Mar); while the Maritime Continent comprising Malaysia and Indonesia records higher fire occurrence between the months of August to October.

The burning activities are strongly correlated to the dry and hot weather anomalies involving El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). 2015 is an exemplary extreme ENSO year where more than 50,000 hotspots were identified in September, while 2019 was affected by the positive IOD over the Maritime Continent.

The data is extracted from the MODIS sensor mounted on the TERRA/AQUA satellite: MOD14 (Terra) and MYD14 (Aqua) through this download link: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/download/. It is a free level 2 (L2) fire product at 1km resolution measured every 5 minutes. The data download is summed into monthly hotspot data and made available in the csv file. The data is then re-gridded into the MERRA model grid (Lat: 0.5°, Long: 0.625°) for easy interpretation and reference through scripting program (NCL).

Khoir, Aulia Nisa’ul, Ooi, Maggie Chel Gee*, Liew, Juneng, Suradi, Kurniawan, Andang and Ni’amillah, Azka (2021) MODIS-derived fire spatial and temporal distribution during haze season in Southeast Asia using empirical orthogonal function, IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 880, 012003, doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/880/1/012003