Fires in Australia

20 December 2006

Fires in Alpine National Park, Victoria

Throughout December 2006, large bushfires raged through national parks and other remote areas of Victoria’s Barry Mountains. Despite the fact that summer was not officially underway, the late spring weather was extremely challenging for firefighters: hot, windy, and dry. Rough estimates based on preliminary maps from the government’s Victoria Parks Website indicated that more than 470,000 hectares (close to 1.2 million acres) had burned as of December 15.

This image from NASA’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on the agency’s Terra satellite shows fires burning in the heart of Alpine National Park, roughly 57 kilometers (a little over 35 miles) southeast of the town of Mansfield. The image uses not only visible light detected by ASTER, but also shortwave- and near-infrared light. Vegetation appears red, burned areas appear charcoal, bare ground (including roads) appears light beige, and smoke is gray. Plumes of smoke from individual fires billow southeast (the image is rotated counterclockwise off North) and spread into a blanket of haze.

Alpine is Victoria’s largest national park, covering 646,000 hectares (nearly 1.6 million acres) of the state’s highest mountains. A mixture of alpine and sub-alpine ecosystems exists in the park, including snow gum (a kind of eucalyptus) forest and high plains covered by grasslands. More than 1,000 species of native plants live within the park, as well as threatened and rare animals. Many areas and roads in the park were closed because of the dangerous fire conditions.

TERRA 20 December  2006

Fires in Victoria

Clouds over the December 16-17 weekend may have kept temperatures down a bit, but they apparently did little to quench dozens of large fires raging in the Barry Mountains of Victoria, Australia. This image of the area was captured on December 18, 2006, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are outlined in red. Thick smoke billows eastward from the fires across Victoria and New South Wales. Fires burned throughout the state during December.

AQUA 18 December  2006

The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. An image from the previous satellite overpass was stitched to the east (right) edge to show the extent of the smoke over the Tasman Sea. 

(source: Earth Observatory).

The current situation in Australia is covered by a number of detailed reports (see GFMC Media web page):

• Nervous wait at Buller as three fire fronts close in (published by  www.theage.com.au, 20 December 2006)

• Forecast rain brings fire relief (published by  www.news.com.au, 20 December 2006)

• Bushfires kill thousands of koalas, kangeroos (published by  english.people.com.cn, 19 December 2006)

• Australian fire report released as bushfires burn (published by  www.alertnet.org, 19 December 2006)

• Bushfire jumps Vic containment lines (published by  www.thewest.com.au, 18 December 2006)

• PM dismisses climate change bushfire claims (published by  www.abc.net.au, 18 December 2006)

• NZ committed to Victoria bushfire battle (published by  www.abc.net.au, 18 December 2006)

• Fire crews prepare for hotter weather (published by  tvnz.co.nz, 18 December 2006)

• New Zealanders injured in Australian bushfire (published by  www.abc.net.au, 17 December 2006)

• Injured NZ firefighters named (published by  www.stuff.co.nz, 17 December 2006)

• Extra funds for bushfire victims (published by  www.news.com.au, 16 December 2006)

• Police hunt teen arsonists blamed for deadly Australian wildfire (published by  www.channelnewsasia.com, 16 December 2006)

• Burn the fuel to cut the hazard (published by  www.theaustralian.news.com.au, 16 December 2006)

• Arson blamed for deadly bushfire (published by  www.thewest.com.au, 15 December 2006)

• Australian killed fighting bushfire, 16 homes lost (published by  www.sabcnews.com, 15 December 2006)

• Tas fires lull (published by  www.skynews.com.au, 15 December 2006)

• Crews prepare to fight bushfire south of Narrabri (published by  www.abc.net.au, 15 December 2006)

• Fire-ravaged Vic town continues clean-up (published by  www.abc.net.au, 15 December 2006)

• Fire rage eases in Australia's south amid cooler weather (published by  english.people.com.cn, 15 December 2006)

• Rain eases bushfire threat (published by  www.abc.net.au, 15 December 2006)

• Bushfire victims will get payment: PM (published by  www.smh.com.au, 14 December 2006)

• Austrailian Firefighter Killed at Wildfire (published by  cms.firehouse.com, 14 December 2006)

• Grass fire licks fuel terminal walls (published by  www.theage.com.au, 14 December 2006)

• Decrease in `Asian haze` could cause droughts in Australia (published by  www.zeenews.com, 14 December 2006)

• Cool night aids firefighters (published by  www.news.com.au, 14 December 2006)

• Melbourne chokes on fire haze (published by  www.news.com.au, 14 December 2006)

• Bushfire threatens properties near Tumut (published by  www.villagevoice.com.au, 14 December 2006)

• Sparks are flying (published by  www.news.com.au, 14 December 2006)

• Volunteer fireys safe from workplace dismissal (published by  www.news.com.au, 14 December 2006)

Further Information on the Fire Situation in Australia:

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