Validation of MODIS MCD45A1 product to identify burned areas in Acre State - Amazon forest

Burned areas map is essential in many applications and the orbital sensors have been used to monitor fires for many years, providing a better understanding of processes at different scales and being the only practical technique to estimate fires in large areas. However, remote sensing methods have limitations that could cause errors in the final products. Therefore, the objective of this work is to evaluate the MCD45A1 burned area product derived from MODIS sensor in Amazon tropical forest by comparing this dataset with the reference data derived from the mapping of burned areas in Acre State/Brazil acquired by TM sensor aboard of Landsat 5 and with a fieldwork that took place in November 2011. The results showed that de MCD45A1 product presented 93% of omission errors in 2010 and 96% in 2011 year in relation to reference data, presenting a low confidence in identifying the burned areas in Amazon region.