Paper: Reference Data Accuracy Impacts Burned Area Product Validation: The Role of the Expert Analyst
Received: 4 August 2022 / Accepted: 31 August 2022 / Published: 2 September 2022 Accurate reference data to validate burned area (BA) products are crucial to obtainingreliable accuracy metrics for such products. However, the accuracy of reference data can be affectedby numerous factors; hence, we can expect some degree of deviation with respect to real groundconditions. Since reference data are usually produced by semi-automatic methods, where human-based image interpretation is an important part of the process, in this study, we analyze the impact ofthe interpreter on the accuracy of the reference data. Here, we compare the accuracy metrics of theFireCCI51 BA product obtained from reference datasets that were produced by different analysts over60 sites located in tropical regions of South America. Additionally, fire severity, tree cover percentage,and canopy height were selected as explanatory sources of discrepancies between interpreters’reference BA classifications. We found significant differences between the FireCCI51 accuracy metricsobtained with [...]