This data set provides estimates of annual carbon emissions (kg carbon per square meter) from boreal fires at 450-m resolution for the state of Alaska between 2001 and 2013. To produce these data, daily burned area for 2001 to 2013 was mapped using imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) combined with perimeters from the Alaska Large Fire Database. Carbon consumption was calibrated using available field measurements from black spruce forests in Alaska. Above- and below-ground carbon consumption were modeled based on environmental variables including elevation, day of burning within the fire season, pre-fire tree cover and the differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR). Modeled uncertainties in carbon consumption are included in the data set. The derived burn area and carbon emissions product, referred to as the Alaskan Fire Emissions Database (AKFED), provides a resource for study of the environmental controls on daily fire dynamics, boreal fire emissions in biogeochemical models, and potential feedbacks from changing fire regimes.

This dataset includes field measurements from unburned and burned 10 m x 10 m and 1 m x 1 m plots in the Noatak, Seward, and North Slope regions of the Alaskan tundra during July through August in the years 2016-2018. The data include vegetation coverage, soil moisture, soil temperature, soil thickness, thaw depth, and weather measurements. Measurements were recorded using ocular assessments and standard equipment. Plot photographs are included.

This data set contains annual modeled estimates of wildland fire emissions at 0.01 degree (~1-km) spatial resolution from the Wildland Fire Emissions Information System (WFEIS v0.5) for the conterminous U.S. (CONUS) and Alaska for 2001 through 2013. WFEIS is a web-based tool that provides resources to quantify emissions from past fires and output results as spatial data files (French et al., 2014). The data set includes emissions estimates of carbon (C), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), other non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), and particulate matter (PM) as well as estimates of above-ground biomass, total fuel availability, and consumption estimates.

This dataset provides estimates of wildfire progression represented by date of burning (DoB) within fire scars across Alaska and Canada for the period 2001-2019. Burn scar locations were obtained from two datasets: the Alaskan Interagency Coordination Center (AICC) and the Natural Resources Canada (NRC) databases. All scars within these databases were used in this study. The estimated DoB was derived using an algorithm for identifying the first fire occurrence from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) active fire detection product (MCD14ML, Collection 6) and to subsequently determine all dates of burning within fire scars. The DoB data are provided as polygons and map the daily progression of a fire within each burn scar. As a result, there is one polygon for each DoB detected within an identified burn scar boundary. The MODIS active fire points associated with the burn scar data are also provided. Data for the period 2001-2015 were first published in 2017 and data for the period 2016-2019 were added in January 2021.

This dataset is a synthesis of field plot characterization data, derived above-ground and below-ground combusted carbon, and acquired Fire Weather Index (FWI) System components for burned boreal forest sites across Alaska, USA, the Northwest Territories, and Saskatchewan, Canada from 1983-2016. Unburned plot data are also included. Compiled plot-level characterization data include stand age, disturbance history, tree density, and tree biophysical measurements for calculation of the above-ground (ag) and below-ground (bg) biomass/carbon pools, pre-fire and residual post-fire soil organic layer (SOL) depths and estimates of combustion of tree structural classes. The measured slope and aspect for each site and an assigned moisture class based on topography are also provided. Data from 1019 burned and 152 unburned sites are included. From the estimates of combusted ag and bg carbon pools and SOL losses, the total carbon combusted, the proportion of pre-fire carbon combusted, and the proportion of total carbon combusted were calculated for each plot. FWI System components including moisture and drought codes and indices of fire danger were obtained for each plot from existing data sources based on the plot location, year of burn, and a dynamic start-up date (day of burn, DOB) from the global fire weather database. Data for soil characteristics are included in a separate file.

This dataset is a synthesis of species-specific pre- and post-fire tree stem density estimates, field plot characterization data, and acquired climate moisture deficit data for sites from Alaska, USA eastward to Quebec, Canada in fires that burned between 1989 and 2014. Data are from 1,538 sites across 58 fire perimeters encompassing 4.52 Mha of forest and all major boreal ecozones in North America. To be included in this synthesis, a site had to contain information on species-specific post-fire seedling densities. This included sites where seedlings had been counted 2-13 years post-fire, a timeframe over which there was little change in relative dominance of species based on densities. Plot characterization data includes stand age, site drainage, disturbance history, crown combustion severity, seedbed conditions, and stand structural attributes. Gridded values of Hargreaves Climate Moisture Deficit (CMD) were obtained for each plot where plot coordinates were available. These values included 30-year normals (1981-2010) and CMD in the two years immediately following the fire year. CMD anomalies were calculated as the difference between the 30-year normal and the single year values for each of the first two years after a fire. These synthesis data are provided in comma-separated values (CSV) format.

This dataset provides spatial estimates of carbon combustion from all 2015 wildfire burned areas across Saskatchewan, Canada, on a 30-m grid. Carbon combustion (kg C/m2) was derived from post-fire field measurements of carbon stocks completed in 2016 at 47 stands that burned during three 2015 Saskatchewan wildfires (Egg, Philion, and Brady) and at 32 unburned stands in adjacent areas. The study areas covered two ecozones (Boreal Plains and Boreal Shield), two stand-replacing history types (fire and timber harvest), three soil moisture classes (xeric, mesic, and subhygric), and three stand dominance classifications (coniferous, deciduous, and mixed). To spatially extrapolate estimates of combustion to all 2015 fires in Saskatchewan, a predictive radial support vector machine model was trained on the 47 burned stands with associated environmental variables and geospatial predictors and applied to historical fire areas. The dataset also includes uncertainty estimates represented as per pixel standard deviations of model estimates derived using a Monte Carlo analysis.

This dataset provides vegetation community characteristics and biophysical data collected in 2018 from areas that were burned by wildfire in 2014 and 2015, and from nine unburned validation sites in the Northwest Territories, Canada. The data include vegetation inventories, ground cover, regrowth, tree diameter and height, and woody seedling/sprouting data at burned sites, and similar vegetation community characterization at unburned validation sites. Additional measurements included soil moisture, collected for validation of the UAVSAR airborne collection, and depth to frozen ground at the nine unburned sites. This 2018 fieldwork completes four years of field sampling at the wildfire areas.

This dataset provides a 28-year time series of peak greenness (NDVI) data derived from Landsat 5 TM imagery over the boreal forest region of Canada. Landsat 5 TM scenes were collected for 46 selected sidelap sites along gradients in climate, tree cover, and disturbance history from 1984 to 2011. Peak-greenness reflectance was computed for 30-m Landsat pixels using the maximum normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) along with the normalized burn ratio (NBR) during the period between days of the year (DOY) 180 and 204. To facilitate trend analysis at each site, the NDVI and NBR data of the 30-m Landsat pixels were regridded to the coarser MODIS 500-m (463.3-m) spatial scale to reduce the effects of missing data and to enhance the significance of the trend. The regridded NDVI and NBR 28-year time series data at 500-m resolution are provided for each of the 46 sites. Two trend analyses were run on the 500-m resolution data and are reported for each site. Supplemental site metadata are also provided, including the number of valid Landsat pixels, land cover composition, and disturbance history, for each 500-m pixel.

This dataset contains differenced Normalized Burned Ratio (dNBR) at 30-m resolution calculated for burn scars from fires that occurred within the Arctic Boreal and Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) Project domain in Alaska and Canada during 1985-2015. The fire perimeters were obtained from the Alaskan Interagency Coordination Center (AICC) and the Natural Resources Canada (NRC) fire occurrence datasets. Only burns with an area larger than 200-ha were included. The dNBR for each burn scar at 30-m pixel resolution was derived from pre- and post-burn Landsat 5, 7, and 8 scenes within a 5-km buffered area surrounding each burn scar using Landsat LEDAPS surface reflection image pairs.