Articles | Volume 18, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5915-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5915-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Data description article
| 
20 Aug 2026
Data description article |
| 20 Aug 2026
| 20 Aug 2026
A multi-decadal global Landsat-derived dataset of forest fire patches from 1984–2022
Jiaying He
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
Xin Zou
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
Weihan Zhang
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
Quan Duan
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
Ronggao Liu
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
Yang Liu
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
Jinwei Dong
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
Chaoyang Wu
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
Chao Wu
Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
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Crop residues left on fields can protect fertile soils, but their distribution across major black-soil farming regions is poorly known. We used Sentinel-2 images to create annual 10-meter maps of four regions from 2019 to 2024 and checked them against field observations. The maps show that residues were most common in intensively farmed areas and that corn was the main source. This dataset can guide soil conservation and help assess farming impacts on soil carbon, water resources, and climate.
Zizhang Zhao, Geli Zhang, Jinwei Dong, Jilin Yang, Chang Fan, Ruoqi Liu, and Xiangming Xiao
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 5583–5599, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5583-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5583-2026, 2026
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Ida Bagus Mandhara Brasika, Pierre Friedlingstein, Stephen Sitch, Michael O'Sullivan, Maria Carolina Duran-Rojas, Emma W. Littleton, Toby R. Marthews, Timothy Hill, Wei Li, Yidi Xu, Jiaxin Zhou, Xiangzhong Luo, Ruiying Zhao, Yuanchao Fan, Dedy Sukmara, Timer Manurung, Masayuki Kondo, Alexander Knohl, Tejaswini Jaajpera, and Lisma Safitri
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3689, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3689, 2026
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Oil palm is a major crop in Indonesia, but climate models often treat it as generic cropland. We developed a new way to represent oil palm in the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator. This improved how the model captures carbon stored and released by oil-palm plantations. The work helps estimate emissions from land-use change more realistically, supporting better understanding of tropical agriculture, deforestation and climate impacts.
Tim Stripp, Zhixuan Guo, Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O’Sullivan, Stephen Sitch, Ana Bastos, Philippe Ciais, Jefferson Goncalves de Souza, Akihiko Ito, Wei Li, and Lei Ma
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3584, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3584, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Biogeosciences (BG).
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Fire is a key process within the Earth system, yet it is often poorly represented in land carbon cycle models used to estimate how much carbon land ecosystems absorb from the atmosphere. We improved these models by applying long-term burned area data reconstructed from satellite observations. This reduced biases and uncertainty in fire carbon emission estimates and improved estimates of land carbon uptake, implying this method could enhance global and regional carbon budget estimates.
Jincheng Wu, Philippe Ciais, Yuanyuan Huang, Jianing Fang, Pierre Gentine, Yidi Xu, Daniel Goll, Fayong Liu, Xiaomeng Du, Rui Ma, Nan Meng, Mengjie Han, Jinlong Zang, Runda Jiang, and Wei Li
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2241, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2241, 2026
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Predicting land carbon sinks remains a challenge because carbon allocation and turnover are poorly constrained in terrestrial biosphere models. We used a differentiable framework to jointly assimilate daily satellite data and long-term boreal forest growth trajectories. This approach significantly reduced biomass simulation errors. We found that boreal forests sustain biomass through long carbon residence times rather than high allocation rates, making them highly vulnerable to warming.
Lei Zhu, Philippe Ciais, Yitong Yao, Daniel Goll, Sebastiaan Luyssaert, Isabel Martínez Cano, Arthur Fendrich, Laurent Li, Hui Yang, Sassan Saatchi, Ricardo Dalagnol, and Wei Li
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 4915–4933, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4915-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4915-2025, 2025
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This study enhances the accuracy of modeling the carbon dynamics of the Amazon rainforest by optimizing key model parameters based on satellite data. Using spatially varying parameters for tree mortality and photosynthesis, we improved predictions of biomass, productivity, and tree mortality. Our findings highlight the critical role of wood density and water availability in forest processes, offering insights to use in refining global carbon cycle models.
Zhixuan Guo, Wei Li, Philippe Ciais, Stephen Sitch, Guido R. van der Werf, Simon P. K. Bowring, Ana Bastos, Florent Mouillot, Jiaying He, Minxuan Sun, Lei Zhu, Xiaomeng Du, Nan Wang, and Xiaomeng Huang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 3599–3618, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-3599-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-3599-2025, 2025
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To address the limitations of short time spans in satellite data and spatiotemporal discontinuity in site records, we reconstructed global monthly burned area maps at a 0.5° resolution for 1901–2020 using machine learning models. The global burned area is predicted at 3.46 × 106–4.58 × 106 km² per year, showing a decline from 1901 to 1978, an increase from 1978 to 2008 and a sharper decrease from 2008 to 2020. This dataset provides a benchmark for studies on fire ecology and the carbon cycle.
Binghong Han, Jian Bi, Shengli Tao, Tong Yang, Yongli Tang, Mengshuai Ge, Hao Wang, Zhenong Jin, Jinwei Dong, Zhibiao Nan, and Jin-Sheng He
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 2933–2952, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-2933-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-2933-2025, 2025
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The Tibetan Plateau is an important pastoral area where cultivated pastures play an increasingly important role. However, little is known about the spatial distribution of the cultivated pastures due to the difficulty in distinguishing them from natural grasslands with remote sensing. For the first time, we have mapped the cultivated pastures on the plateau at a resolution of 30 m with decent accuracy. This dataset is valuable to scientists, policymakers, conservationists, and pastoralists.
Jie Wang, Xiangming Xiao, Yuanwei Qin, Jinwei Dong, Geli Zhang, Xuebin Yang, Xiaocui Wu, Chandrashekhar Biradar, and Yang Hu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4619–4639, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4619-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4619-2024, 2024
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Existing satellite-based forest maps have large uncertainties due to different forest definitions and mapping algorithms. To effectively manage forest resources, timely and accurate annual forest maps at a high spatial resolution are needed. This study improved forest maps by integrating PALSAR-2 and Landsat images. Annual evergreen and non-evergreen forest-type maps were also generated. This critical information supports the Global Forest Resources Assessment.
Qinghang Mei, Zhao Zhang, Jichong Han, Jie Song, Jinwei Dong, Huaqing Wu, Jialu Xu, and Fulu Tao
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3213–3231, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3213-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3213-2024, 2024
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In order to make up for the lack of long-term soybean planting area maps in China, we firstly generated a dataset of soybean planting area with a spatial resolution of 10 m for major producing areas in China from 2017 to 2021 (ChinaSoyArea10m). Compared with existing datasets, ChinaSoyArea10m has higher consistency with census data and further improvement in spatial details. The dataset can provide reliable support for subsequent studies on yield monitoring and food security.
Mengjie Han, Qing Zhao, Xili Wang, Ying-Ping Wang, Philippe Ciais, Haicheng Zhang, Daniel S. Goll, Lei Zhu, Zhe Zhao, Zhixuan Guo, Chen Wang, Wei Zhuang, Fengchang Wu, and Wei Li
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The impact of biochar (BC) on soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics is not represented in most land carbon models used for assessing land-based climate change mitigation. Our study develops a BC model that incorporates our current understanding of BC effects on SOC based on a soil carbon model (MIMICS). The BC model can reproduce the SOC changes after adding BC, providing a useful tool to couple dynamic land models to evaluate the effectiveness of BC application for CO2 removal from the atmosphere.
Yitong Yao, Philippe Ciais, Emilie Joetzjer, Wei Li, Lei Zhu, Yujie Wang, Christian Frankenberg, and Nicolas Viovy
Earth Syst. Dynam., 15, 763–778, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-763-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-763-2024, 2024
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Elevated CO2 concentration (eCO2) is critical for shaping the future path of forest carbon uptake, while uncertainties remain about concurrent carbon loss. Here, we found that eCO2 might amplify competition-induced carbon loss, while the extent of drought-induced carbon loss hinges on the balance between heightened biomass density and water-saving benefits. This is the first time that such carbon loss responses to ongoing climate change have been quantified separately over the Amazon rainforest.
Kai Yan, Jingrui Wang, Rui Peng, Kai Yang, Xiuzhi Chen, Gaofei Yin, Jinwei Dong, Marie Weiss, Jiabin Pu, and Ranga B. Myneni
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1601–1622, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1601-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1601-2024, 2024
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Variations in observational conditions have led to poor spatiotemporal consistency in leaf area index (LAI) time series. Using prior knowledge, we leveraged high-quality observations and spatiotemporal correlation to reprocess MODIS LAI, thereby generating HiQ-LAI, a product that exhibits fewer abnormal fluctuations in time series. Reprocessing was done on Google Earth Engine, providing users with convenient access to this value-added data and facilitating large-scale research and applications.
Yuan Zhang, Devaraju Narayanappa, Philippe Ciais, Wei Li, Daniel Goll, Nicolas Vuichard, Martin G. De Kauwe, Laurent Li, and Fabienne Maignan
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 9111–9125, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-9111-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-9111-2022, 2022
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There are a few studies to examine if current models correctly represented the complex processes of transpiration. Here, we use a coefficient Ω, which indicates if transpiration is mainly controlled by vegetation processes or by turbulence, to evaluate the ORCHIDEE model. We found a good performance of ORCHIDEE, but due to compensation of biases in different processes, we also identified how different factors control Ω and where the model is wrong. Our method is generic to evaluate other models.
Yang Liu, Ronggao Liu, and Rong Shang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 4505–4523, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4505-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4505-2022, 2022
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Surface water has been changing significantly with high seasonal variation and abrupt change, making it hard to capture its interannual trend. Here we generated a global annual surface water cover frequency dataset during 2000–2020. The percentage of the time period when a pixel is covered by water in a year was estimated to describe the seasonal dynamics of surface water. This dataset can be used to analyze the interannual variation and change trend of highly dynamic inland water extent.
Xinxin Wang, Xiangming Xiao, Yuanwei Qin, Jinwei Dong, Jihua Wu, and Bo Li
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 3757–3771, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3757-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3757-2022, 2022
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We generated China’s surface water bodies, Large Dams, Reservoirs, and Lakes (China-LDRL) dataset by analyzing all available Landsat imagery in 2019 (19\,338 images) in Google Earth Engine. The dataset provides accurate information on the geographical locations and sizes of surface water bodies, large dams, reservoirs, and lakes in China. The China-LDRL dataset will contribute to the understanding of water security and water resources management in China.
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Short summary
Understanding how forest fires reshape landscapes requires information not only on where fires occur, but also on the size, shape, and spatial organization of fire patches. We created a global 30 m dataset of forest fire patches spanning 1984–2022 using the Landsat satellite archive. Including nearly 12 million fire patches, this dataset facilitates ecological research at regional to global scales by characterizing fire patch structure and spatial organization over time.
Understanding how forest fires reshape landscapes requires information not only on where fires...
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