Characterisation of Residue Burning from Agricultural System in India using Space Based Observations

Biomass burning is a global phenomenon with agriculture residue burning having a sizeable share. Biomass burning is a major source of emission of green house gases (GHGs). Thus the space-based observations of global distribution of fire form a key component of climate change studies. This study is a step towards understanding the spatio-temporal occurrence of agricultural residues burning in Indo-Gangetic plains of India using fire products from space borne satellites. The 3 years daily active fire data of MODIS (Aqua/Terra) from August, 2006 to July, 2009 have been used in this study. The data analysis showed that out of total fire events, around 69% contribution comes from agricultural areas and remaining (31%) comes from non-agricultural areas. This is mainly due to the intensive cultivation in this belt. The characterisation analysis revealed that, 84% of agriculture residues burning is from Rice-Wheat system (RWS) alone and remaining 16% in other types of crop rotations. The fire incidents were very high in October–December (55%) compared to that in March–May (36%), further indicating that burning of rice residue is more prevalent than that of wheat.