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We use MODIS aerosol optical depth and AVHRR fire counts over the Amazon Basin to determine whether biomass burning is increasing or decreasing over continental scales in South America. We find a significant sustained increasing trend in both the seasonal mean optical depth and fire data that begins in the year 2000 and 1998, respectively, and continues through 2005. However, there is a sharp reversal of this trend in 2006 that causes the overall trend to become less significant. The sharp decrease of biomass burning in 2006 is linked to a tri‐national policy shift first implemented in 2006. The results show how significantly human activity can affect the large scale environment.
Koren et al. (2007) studied this question.