Sentinel-2 burned area reference data across the southeastern United States

The creation of reference data to validate burned area products can help characterize variability in product errors and ensure appropriate utilization of burned area products. Reference burned area was mapped for six Sentinel-2 tiles distributed across the southeastern U.S. including within Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, and Virginia. Within each tile reference data were generated from three image pairs (n=18), where burned area was identified as present in a post-image but absent in a pre-image. The imagery in each pair was acquired between 2017 and 2021. The burned area was mapped using a semi-automated algorithm in Google Earth Engine, then manually edited to maximize the reference data accuracy.