About half of the global gas and particle emissions to the atmosphere resulting from the burning of biomass originate from sub-Saharan Africa. There are four principal pathways: wildfires, the use of biomass fuels for energy, burning associated with deforestation and the burning of agricultural residues.

Distributions and climate impacts of biomass-burning aerosols were simulated by a global aerosol climate model, SPRINTARS, which was fully coupled to a general circulation model. The model included calculations of the direct, semi-direct and indirect effects of aerosols.

Fire plays important role in shaping ecosystem structure and function. Depending upon the complex effects of fire, it can have either beneficial or harmful effects. In this article, we briefly review the potential of satellite remote sensing data for mapping and monitoring vegetation fires.

Biomass burning is an important source of greenhouse gas emissions, most importantly carbon dioxide (CO2). In this study, we used burnt area estimates derived from the L3JRC product to estimate the CO2 emissions from forests. The results suggested than an average of 2,414 sq.kms is burnt annually.

The seasonal variability of biomass open burning activities in the Greater Mekong sub-region (GMS) with focus on carbon monoxide (CO) and total particulate matter or aerosol (TPM) emissions was investigated in order to document the characteristics of this significant source of air pollutants in the region.

It is well known that at least 20 million of Indonesia's people were directly or indirectly affected by the 1997/1998 Indonesian forest and field fires, where 10-11 million acres of forest and fields burnt.

Biomass burning is an essential part of slash-and-burn (S&B) agriculture, which is widely practiced as an important food production system in the tropical mountains of southeast Asia.S&B agriculture used to be sustainable and carbon neutral; CO2 emissions by biomass burning were balanced with photosynthetic biomass growth and land use was stable.

In 1996, the National Remote Sensing Center (NRSC) began using NOAA-AVHRR data for fire monitoring in Mongolia. It expanded its detection technology with the addition of TERRA and AQUA MODIS data, giving it a spatial resolution of 250 m as of 2008, and developed a related methodology and technology for detection and monitoring of active fires and mapping of burned areas over Mongolia.

MODIS hotspot data from NASA have now become a standard means of evaluating vegetation fires worldwide. Remote sensing is the most effective tool for large countries like Russia because it is hard to obtain exact, detailed forest fire data. Accumulated MODIS hotspot data of the nine years from 2002 to 2010 may allow us to assess recent changes in the vegetation fire incidence in Russia.