Use of geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites to estimate emissions from biomass burning in shifting cultivation prevalent areas of Northeast India.

Biomass burning is a major contributor to atmospheric gases and particulate matter. Shifting cultivation, while decreasing compared to the previous decade, remains an important agricultural activity in South and Southeast Asia. This practice contributes significantly to air pollution in Southeast Asian countries during the intense burning season. Northeast India (NEI), a region that connects India to Southeast Asian countries, also shows the prevalence of shifting cultivation. Previous estimates used data that significantly underestimated emissions from shifting cultivation in the region. This study calculated the emission estimations from shifting cultivation-prevalent areas of NEI during the peak biomass burning season. The emission estimation was carried out by combining the diurnal information of fires detected by a geostationary satellite, Himawari-8, and the fire radiative power (FRP) detected by a high-resolution polar-orbiting satellite, VIIRS-SNPP. Burning activities generated approximately 4555.98 ± 991.03 Gg of CO, 278.77 ± 139.43 Gg of CO, 23.34 ± 10.71 Gg of PM, and 1.43 ± 1.02 Gg of BC during the peak burning season. The dry matter burned (DMB) during the assessment period is approximately 1.9-2.2 times higher than the state-of-the-art emissions database, GFEDv4.1 estimates. During the initial and subsequent year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a substantial increase in fire activity and the resulting emissions from shifting cultivation prevalent areas of NEI.