IMPROVING BIOMASS BURNING ESTIMATES BY UPDATING LAND USE AND LAND COVER INFORMATION

Biomass burning (BB) emissions are often related to broad detrimental impacts including climate change and endangering human health. The combination of orbital remote sensing and modelling enables the estimate of BB emissions on regional to global scales. However, these estimates are often linked to very high uncertainties. This work aimed at improving BB emissions estimates from the PREP-CHEM-SRC emissions preprocessing tool by updating the Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) information based on the MapBiomas annual LULC maps. We have run the tool for the 2002-2020 period and then analyzed the difference in the annual estimates of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emitted from BB in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes. In the Amazon biome, annual emissions decreased, on average, 2.0% with the new LULC information. At the Cerrado biome, annual emissions increased, on average, by 2.4%. Other improvements, such as updated emission factors, can improve the accuracy of estimates derived from PREP-CHEM-SRC.