As a large agricultural country, China faces large-scale burning of crop stubble in the field during harvesting, post-harvesting, and pre-harvesting periods. In recent decades, Crop Residue Burning (CRB) played a noticeable role in the sudden and extreme haze episodes, which resulted in reducing atmospheric visibility and harming human health.On the regional or global scale, satellite remote sensing technology can offer a reliable fire data source that can resolve the significant in situ data gap. In this study, the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer active fire products, MOD14/MYD14, were employed from 2013 to 2017. Land cover data were used to extract crop residue burning spots by selecting active fires over farmlands in the daytime.Results showed that CRB spots were mainly distributed in the northeast, Sanjiang, Huang–Huai–Hai, middle-lower Yangtze, and Hetao plains, as well as Sichuan basin. As the largest contributor, the average annual CRB spot number in Northeast China reached 47.55% of that in China. From 2013 to 2017, the variation of the annual CRB spot number showed an “up-down-up” trend. The annual CRB spot number of China increased from 2013 to 2014, dramatically dropping from 2014 to 2016, and then slightly increased from 2016 to 2017. Compared with the figure of 2014, the total number of CRB spot in China in 2016 decreased by 34.48%. In the recent five years, the major regions over China with serious CRB were fixed because of rare changes in agricultural areas and activities. By calculating the differences in the annual CRB spot number between 2017 and 2013, the results indicated that the area of regions with negative difference was approximately two times of that with the positive difference. The regions with negative difference are in Henan and Anhui provinces, whereas the regions with negative difference are in Northeast China.Official policies played a heavy role in inhibiting crop residue burning. Henan Province in the Huang–Huai–Hai region and Anhui and Hubei provinces in the mid-low reaches of Yangtze River region are three typical provinces whose decrease in CRB numbers was significantly influenced by prohibitions of straw burning. In Henan province, the CRB was not improved before 2015 due to the limitation of policy implementation. However, the monthly CRB numbers in June and October of 2016 declined to 86.66% and 98.93% in June and October of 2015, respectively. This effect can be attributed to the combination of CRB prohibition, accountability mechanism, economic punishment, and increasing use of crop residue. Heilongjiang Province shows negative feedback in the prohibitions of straw burning. Although the monthly CRB number in October 2016 decreased to 40.9% compared with that in October 2015, the monthly CRB number rebounded remarkably in April 2017 because of the large yield of crop residue and the lack of crop residue use. Therefore, further strengthening of prohibitions of straw burning in major regions and in post- and pre-harvesting periods is necessary. To enhance the comprehensive utilization rate of crop residue, a sustainable strategy on crop residue recycling should be expanded in most regions of China. Moreover, more attention should be given to turn disposable crop residue into farmland as a replacement for fertilizers. The policy of “banning” and “using” is a long-term effective measure to control CRB.

remote sensing;MODIS;Terra/Aqua;crop residue burning;spatio-temporal variations;policy effect;variance analysis;China