2.3.1. Cloud and water masking
A water mask is obtained from the MODIS geolocation data set (Justice et al., 2002b). The cloud detection approach adopts the technique used in the International Geosphere Biosphere Program (IGBP) AVHRR-derived Global Fire Product (Stroppiana et al., 2000) and the MODIS contextual algorithm (Giglio et al., 2003). The pixel that satisfies the following condition is considered as cloud: