Bush and Forest Fires in Australia: 1 February 2000
Bush and Forest Fires in Australia
1 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 1 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 1 February 2000 shows 1 contained and 13 controlled fires. The locations of these fires are displayed in the statewide fire situation map below.
Fig.2. Statewide Fire Situation Map of Victoria, 1 February 2000
(Source: NRE)
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued on 1 February 2000 an updated forecast for Northern Territory:
North of Elliott…
Isolated showers and storms, mainly during the afternoon and evening. Mostly light winds.
South of Elliott…
Fine, apart from isolated afternoon showers over the Barkly region. Hot with moderate northeast winds.
Fire Danger
High in the Alice Springs region.
As fire restrictions apply during the fire season, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology/South Australian Regional Office issued on 1 February 2000 a fire ban advice for following districts. In the list below the fire danger ratings for these districts are described in detail.
Northwest Pastoral
extreme
Northeast Pastoral
extreme
West Coast
extreme
Eastern Eyre Peninsula
extreme
Lower Eyre Peninsula
very high
Flinders
very high
Mid North
extreme
Mount Lofty Ranges
extreme
Adelaide Metropolitan
very high
Yorke Peninsula
very high
Kangaroo Island
high
Riverland
extreme
Murraylands
very high
Upper South East
very high
Lower South East
very high
For the up-to-date fire weather information of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology refer to http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/.
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 fire
Firebreak
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 sites
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment in Victoria
http://www.nre.vic.gov.au/fires/index.htm
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.
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.
