Bush and Forest Fires in Australia
16 February 2000
The Satellite Remote Sensing Services Department of Land Administration (DOLA) routinely evaluates the NOAA AVHRR satellite sensor to detect and locate vegetation fires and high-temperature events. In Australia hot events depicted by the satellite can represent wildfires or prescribed fires as well as industrial activities (e.g., gas flares, smelters) and hot surfaces (e.g., rocks heated by solar radiation during the daytime overpasses of the satellite). Thus, DOLA displays two products of hot spot maps: the automatically generated high-temperature event maps (which include false alarms) and the manually generated fire maps. All hotspot locations are geo-referenced and where required as Australian Map Grid. On some days up to four NOAA-AVHRR passes are used to identify hot events.
The manual method (human operator) provides greater accuracy however it takes longer. Thus, the issue of the manually generated fire maps is delayed (not real-time). Hot spots are located using NOAA-AVHRR channel 3 on early morning (0050-0340hrs) and mid morning (0450-0630hrs) images.
Fig.1. Fire Detection Map for Australia for 16 February 2000 overlaid on a pan-Australian vegetation cover map.
Source fire coordinates: Satellite Remote Sensing Services Department of Land Administration (DOLA)
Source of vegetation and fuel type map: Luke and McArthur (1977)
(Please take into account, that this presentation represents mainly fire events from Western Australia and Northern Territories)The Department of Natural Resources and Environment is responsible for the management of fire prevention and suppression on public lands in Victoria. The last updated bushfire statistic of 16 February 2000 shows 1 contained fire and 22 controlled fires. The locations of these fires are displayed in the statewide fire situation map below.
Fig.2. Statewide Fire Situation Map of Victoria, 16 February 2000
(Source: National Ressources and Environment)The Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued on 16 February 2000 an updated forecast for Northern Territory:
North of Barrow Creek: Scattered showers and thunderstorms with areas of rain. Moderate to heavy falls may cause significant stream rises and flooding of low lying areas. Moderate west to northwest winds.
South of Barrow Creek: Fine in the southeast. Cloudy areas with isolated showers and thunderstorms elsewhere, mainly during the afternoon and evening. Moderate easterly winds.
The fire danger is generally low for the Northern Territories.As fire restrictions apply during the fire season, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology/South Australian Regional Office issued on 16 February 2000 the fire danger ratings for following districts.
Fire Ban District Fire Danger Rating Northwest Pastoral
high
Northeast Pastoral
high to very high West Coast
very high Eastern Eyre Peninsula
very high Lower Eyre Peninsula
high Flinders
very high
Mid North
very high
Mount Lofty Ranges
very high
Adelaide Metropolitan
high Yorke Peninsula
high to very high Kangaroo Island
high to very high Riverland
high to very high
Murraylands
high to very high
Upper South East
high to very high Lower South East
very high Please have also a look on a list of links for information on Australian Fire Management Agencies:
Australasian Fire Authorities Council
http://www.ausfire.com/
The home page of the Australasian Fire Authorities Council coordinates the diverse range of activities of the different australian agencies concerned about fireFirebreak
http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~barling/firebreak/firebreak.html
The firebreak newsletter provides a very extensive homepage with information about fire fighting in Australia, downloadable java scripts for calculating fire weather and various links to related sitesThe Department of Natural Resources and Environment in Victoria
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment in Victoria offers a very comprehensive web site with information on fire management. In their web site current reports are provided with statistics on the fire season. Extensive background information is included along with several links to related web sites.
http://www.nre.vic.gov.au/fires/index.htm
Satellite Remote Sensing Services Department of Land Administration (DOLA)
http://www.rss.dola.wa.gov.au/apps/firewatch.html
The Satellite Remote Sensing Services (SRSS) of the Department of Land Administration provides near real time hot spot detection and burned scar mapping for western Australia. In the Firewatch project the SRSS detects hotspots throughout Western Australia using the thermal channel of the NOAA AVHRR sensor on a daily basis.For more informations on Australia go to the IFFN country files.