Status: this preprint is currently under review for the journal ESSD.
CONFEX: A Database for CONUS Fire EXtent
Raja Zubair Zahoor Qadiriand Diego Cerrai
Abstract. This article presents the CONUS Fire EXtent (CONFEX) database. This database, based on the VIIRS S-NPP 375 m data product, provides wildfire perimeter, centroid, ignition location, start and end date for the period 2012–2023, for the CONUS and Alaska regions. The algorithm takes hotspot locations from VIIRS S-NPP, clusters them into actual wildfires based on DBSCAN clustering and calculates the perimeter and centroid of each cluster, attaching a geodata frame to each cluster or fire. When validated for some recent large fires against the CALFIRE database, an F1 score of 85–96 % and a CSI of 74–93 % were found, showing the efficiency of the algorithm in aggregating hotspots spatially and temporally accurately. This is the first publicly available high-resolution wildfire extent dataset developed for the CONUS and Alaska regions using VIIRS S-NPP 375 m data product. The database provides a valuable resource for researchers to understand the complexities of the fire regimes in the CONUS and Alaska regions.
Received: 01 Aug 2025 – Discussion started: 26 Aug 2025
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Thank you for your manuscript describing your new fire-perimeter dataset for CONUS. I think you have correctly identified a useful application of the satellite data to support studies of the environmental and other impacts of wildfires in the United States.
In general terms, I think your revisions should focus on three main areas:
First, I believe the introduction needs to spend less time on the history and diversity of fire remote sensing, and more time describing the many, many previously constructed datasets of North American fire area. Your dataset has specific advantages and disadvantages relative to previous attempts, and that is information you should attempt to compile for the reader.
The domain, spatial and temporal coverage and resolution, and key features of these datasets should be compared with CONFEX to inform the reader. Note that I am not requesting quantitative cross-validation. Here are a few of the datasets I think should be compared to CONFEX in your publication:
Second, the information that pertains to the actual methods you used is currently interleaved with discussion of older methods—you need to make sure that all the information about your method is in the Methods section, and call back to the introduction only to highlight the parts where you have introduced new innovations.
Lastly, you should consider including some discussion about the challenges specific to Alaska and the results of including Alaska in your processing.
Good luck with your revisions, and thank you for your hard work.
Wildfire information is often scattered. We created an open database of individual wildfires across the contiguous United States and Alaska from 2012 to 2023. Using hot spot detections from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite, we grouped detections into single events and mapped each wildfire's boundary, location, and start and end dates. Checks against independent records show good agreement. The dataset supports studies of trends, risk, emissions, air quality, and planning.
Wildfire information is often scattered. We created an open database of individual wildfires...
Qadiri et al.
“CONFEX: 1 A Database for CONUS Fire Extent”
Submitted to Earth Science Datasets
Reviewer comments
Dear Authors,
Thank you for your manuscript describing your new fire-perimeter dataset for CONUS. I think you have correctly identified a useful application of the satellite data to support studies of the environmental and other impacts of wildfires in the United States.
In general terms, I think your revisions should focus on three main areas:
First, I believe the introduction needs to spend less time on the history and diversity of fire remote sensing, and more time describing the many, many previously constructed datasets of North American fire area. Your dataset has specific advantages and disadvantages relative to previous attempts, and that is information you should attempt to compile for the reader.
The domain, spatial and temporal coverage and resolution, and key features of these datasets should be compared with CONFEX to inform the reader. Note that I am not requesting quantitative cross-validation. Here are a few of the datasets I think should be compared to CONFEX in your publication:
Second, the information that pertains to the actual methods you used is currently interleaved with discussion of older methods—you need to make sure that all the information about your method is in the Methods section, and call back to the introduction only to highlight the parts where you have introduced new innovations.
Lastly, you should consider including some discussion about the challenges specific to Alaska and the results of including Alaska in your processing.
Good luck with your revisions, and thank you for your hard work.