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Fires in Southeast Australia
A crippling heat wave and st
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2/6/09
| Description |
A crippling heat wave and strong winds in southeastern Australia contributed to an outbreak of forest and grassland fires in Victoria in late January 2009. By January 30, about 5,500 hectares had burned and at least 10 homes had been destroyed, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The homes were located in a small community near the town of Boolara. Nearly surrounded by wildfire, the town had also run out of water and lost power, said ABC News. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite was captured on January 30. A large plume of smoke spreads southward from a fire (outlined in red) that appears to be burning in a small area of forest west of Churchill (a larger town near Boolara) in Victoria's Gippsland region. The forest is dark green in contrast to the surrounding grass or cropland. The fire, says ABC News, started as two blazes in plantation forests in the Strzelecki Ranges. The large version of the scene shows a wider area that includes several other fires. Image credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Text credit: Rebecca Lindsey, NASA's Earth Observatory |
| Date |
2/6/09 |
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Bushfires in Southeast Austr
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Bushfires in southeastern Au
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2/9/09
| Description |
Bushfires in southeastern Australia turned deadly over the first weekend of February 2009. Out-of-control fires raced into small communities and towns in Victoria, and more than 100 people had died as of February 9, according to news reports. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC News) reported that many of those who died had remained to protect their homes. Among the most devastated communities were those in the Kinglake area and Marysville. As of February 9, firefighters were expressing concern about the increased activity of the fire around the town of Dederang, southwest of Lake Hume. This image shows the Barry Mountains of central Victoria on February 9, 2009. The image, captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite,is shown in false color, using visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared light. Places where the sensor detected active fire are outlined in red. Burned areas are brick red, and places of intense heat -- often a sign of open flame in this kind of image -- are glowing pink. Smoke turns a transparent blue, which makes it easier to see the ground. Fire is a regular occurrence in the forests and grasslands of southeastern Australia, even in the absence of people. In the hot, dry summer months, vegetation dries out, lightning triggers many natural wildfires. However, in the past decade, the area has experienced several severe droughts, and in late January and early February, parts of South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales were also paralyzed by an exceptional heatwave. Conditions were primed for devastating fires, some of which appear to have been started by lighting and others, according to news reports, by arson. The event was the worst fire disaster in Australia's history. > Labeled image > Photo-like image Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, MODIS Rapid Response Team Text credit: Rebecca Lindsey, NASA's Earth Observatory |
| Date |
2/9/09 |
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Bushfires in Southeast Austr
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Bushfires in Victoria, Austr
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2/23/09
| Description |
Bushfires in Victoria, Australia, flared up significantly in the last week of February 2009. The state has been battling deadly fires since late January 2009 with only brief periods of calm. According to news reports from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on February 23, new emergency evacuation warnings over the weekend had forced hundreds of residents from communities across the state into shelters. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite shows the fires on February 23. This image includes visible, shortwave-, and near-infrared light to thin the smoke and highlight the burned areas (brick red). In this type of image, areas of glowing pink often indicate open flame. Among the areas where bushfires were threatening communities were Daylesford, Warburton and Belgrave. The high-resolution images provided above are at MODIS' maximum spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily images of Victoria in additional resolutions. Image credit: NASA's MODIS Rapid Response Team Text credit: Rebecca Lindsey, NASA's Earth Observatory |
| Date |
2/23/09 |
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Astronomers Find Smallest Ex
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| Title |
Astronomers Find Smallest Extrasolar Planet Yet Around Normal Star |
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Brush Fires in Southeastern
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| Name of Image |
Brush Fires in Southeastern Australia |
| Date of Image |
2003-01-18 |
| Full Description |
This dramatic image of the Australian brushers was taken from orbit by one of the crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Following the worst regional drought in 50 years, this summer's fire season has resulted in numerous large fires over much of the Great Dividing Range as well as the enormous smoke pall over New South Wales, Victoria, and the adjacent South Pacific Ocean. |
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Floods in Southeastern Austr
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| Title |
Floods in Southeastern Australia |
| Description |
Southeast Australia's Gippsland region was experiencing its worst floods in 17 years when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image on June 30, 2007. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News, the floods forced more than 230 people from their homes in this predominantly rural region. Though water can sometimes be difficult to see in photo-like images, sediment-thick run-off has turned the water a muddy red-brown that stands out clearly against the lush green landscape. Both Lake Wellington and Lake Victoria are filled with the muddy flood water. In the lower image, taken before the rain started, the lakes match forested land to their north and west in coloring. The two rivers that flow into Lake Wellington also appear to be flooded, but the red-brown may also be residual mud on the rivers' banks, ABC News [ http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/30/1966501.htm?section=Justin ] reported that the floods had already started to subside on June 30. The full extent of the flooding can be seen by comparing the false-color version of the June 30 [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6/2007181 ] and June 10 [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6/2007161 ] images on the MODIS Rapid Response web site. In the false-color images, water is black against the green, vegetated land. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in Southeastern Austr
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| Title |
Floods in Southeastern Australia |
| Description |
Southeast Australia's Gippsland region was experiencing its worst floods in 17 years when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image on June 30, 2007. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News, the floods forced more than 230 people from their homes in this predominantly rural region. Though water can sometimes be difficult to see in photo-like images, sediment-thick run-off has turned the water a muddy red-brown that stands out clearly against the lush green landscape. Both Lake Wellington and Lake Victoria are filled with the muddy flood water. In the lower image, taken before the rain started, the lakes match forested land to their north and west in coloring. The two rivers that flow into Lake Wellington also appear to be flooded, but the red-brown may also be residual mud on the rivers' banks, ABC News [ http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/30/1966501.htm?section=Justin ] reported that the floods had already started to subside on June 30. The full extent of the flooding can be seen by comparing the false-color version of the June 30 [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6/2007181 ] and June 10 [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6/2007161 ] images on the MODIS Rapid Response web site. In the false-color images, water is black against the green, vegetated land. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Aqua satellite shows multiple large bushfires in southeast Australia on January 12, 2003. Fires are marked with red. This concentration of fires is located in the Great Dividing Range Mountains at the border of New South Wales (north) and Victoria (south). The northernmost fires are burning in the Kosciuszko National Park in southern New South Wales. Gusty winds and high temperatures have hampered containment efforts, and the smoke is beginning to pose a health hazard. Across the Bass Strait, a large fire is burning on Flinders Island. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
According to news reports, more than 70 bushfires were burning across New South Wales, Australia, as of January 10, 2003. Another 20 large fires were burning to the south in Victoria. This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Terra satellite shows the fires marked with red. The image is centered on the Great Dividing Range Mountains in Kosciuszko National Park in southern New South Wales. In the high-resolution imagery, additional fires can be seen burning both south and northwest of Sydney, about 200 miles to the northeast of where the smaller image is centered. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
According to news reports, the fire situation in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia, is grave. Hot temperatures and winds gusting up to 70 kilometers (43 miles) per hour have kept bushfires burning out of control in southeastern New South Wales and northeastern Victoria. The fire situation may be the worst the area has experienced in more than 50 years, and in Victoria, government officials are making plans to call up the army for firefighting assistance. Smoke continues to pour from the blazes and to create a health hazard. This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from January 17, 2003, shows the fires in southeastern Australia marked with red dots. Smoke is drifting south east. On the western side of the fires, what look like long straight lines of smoke (see high-resolution image) may be contrails from reconnaissance aircraft or water tankers. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
Fire danger in southeast New South Wales lessened somewhat between Tuesday, Jan. 21, and Wednesday, Jan. 22 (local time) due to changing winds, while just across the territory boundary, the danger in Victoria (south) increased. Residents were being warned that if they weren't prepared to fight the fires, they had better begin to evacuate their homes, as bushfires push through farm and grazing land on the outskirts of several towns and toward communities in northeastern Victoria. This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image is from the Terra satellite on January 21, 2003, (local time) around 11:00 a.m. The widespread nature of the smoke indicates how strong and variable the winds are. Active fire is marked with a red dot. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image shows bushfires (red dots) raging in southeast Australia on January 13, 2003. The fires are heavily concentrated along the border of New South Wales in the north and Victoria in the south. Across the Bass Strait from the mainland (see high-resolution image), a large fire is burning on Flinders Island. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
Bushfires in southeast Australia are still burning out of control, threatening farmland, livestock, and homes in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia. More than 500 homes have been destroyed, and several towns have fires within one or two kilometers of the city limits. Erratic winds push the fires, some of which have been burning for weeks, one way and then another, frustrating and exhausting the hundreds of firefighters battling the blazes. This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image of the fires (red dots) was acquired January 22, 2003, around 11:30 a.m. local time. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
In southeastern Australia, bushfires are raging out of control. At the border of southeast New South Wales and northeast Victoria in the Great Dividing Range Mountains, dozens of out-of-control fires have destroyed at least 400 homes and killed four people according to local news reports from Tuesday, January 21. The fires blazed through portions of Australia?s capital city of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) along corridors of natural bush that are mixed with the urban landscape. Among the devastating losses, more than two dozen farms have been destroyed and hundreds of livestock have perished. Many farmers are being forced to rapidly sell remaining livestock as the fires have destroyed all available pasture. This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Terra satellite on January 19, 2003, shows the numerous bushfires marked with red dots, as well as the thick, choking smoke. The ACT is almost completely shrouded in smoke from the densest concentrations of fires (left of center). Fires are also burning northwest of Sydney (top center). Conditions are expected to worsen as the week progresses, with high temperatures and winds up to 65 knots (71 miles per hour) whipping the blazes further out of control. More than 900 firefighters are battling the fires, and more continue to pour in from surrounding territories to lend a hand. The high-resolution image available here is 500 meters per pixel. Visit the MODIS Rapid Response Team, for a copy of this scene at MODIS? full resolution of 250 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
A change in the wind direction has shifted the smoke billowing from bushfires in southeast Australia from east to west. This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Aqua satellite on January 23, 2003, shows the fires (red dots) burning near the New South Wales-Victoria border. The change in wind direction has allowed fire fighters to employ a technique called back burning, protecting several towns in the region. When the wind is pushing a fire in one direction, it can be dangerous for firefighters to get too close to the advancing fire in an attempt to create a control line, for example, by digging a fire break. But when the wind changes direction, often pushing the fire back the way it came, firefighters can establish a control line in relative safety aware from the fire front, and then intentionally burn the vegetation between the control line and fire. The intentional burn will then "chase" the main fire, clearing the vegetation and creating a zone of relative safety for the firefighters for when the winds resume their previous course. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
On February 2, 2003, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite detected fires (red dots) still burning in southeast Australia. A shroud of smoke hangs over Victoria and stretches out over the Bass Strait. These fires have been burning for about one month. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
A break in the weather has given firefighters in southeast Australia a much-needed hand as January winds to a close. After weeks of battling scores of fires in the remote and often inaccessible terrain of the Great Dividing Range Mountains of southeastern New South Wales and northeastern Victoria, firefighters were handed a little rain, calmer winds, and a drop in temperatures. More than a million acres of have been scorched by the blazes, and this false-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Terra satellite on January 31, 2003, shows the extent of the burned area. Vegetation is bright green, burned areas are red or reddish-brown, and areas of naturally low vegetation (or bare soil) are tan. Active fires are marked with red dots. Smoke is blue. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
Ribbons of flame trace across the parched landscape of southeast Australia. Prolonged, severe drought (exacerbated by an El Ni¤o), high winds, and high temperatures have sparked scores of fires across New South Wales and Victoria, Australia. Lives, homes, farmland, and livestock have been lost to the blazes. This scene, situated roughly 30 km southwest of Canberra, shows smoke billowing from one of the numerous fires in the region. This unusual image was made from data collected on January 26, 2003, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on the Terra satellite. The image is a combination of radiation in the visible and shortwave infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, using ASTER bands 3, 2, and 1. Fires burning in vegetation tend to emit radiation very strongly in the short wave infrared wavelengths of radiation, and this strong signal can be used to locate areas of open flame. In this image, the strong shortwave infrared signal of the flames has been colored bright yellow. Vegetation is red, and naturally bare soil is tan. The full scene is roughly 40 km by 60 km in area. Image courtesy NASA's Earth Observatory. |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
Bushfires rage on in southeast Australia on January 25, 2003. Smoke is covering the southeastern corner of the continent and reaching out over the Pacific Ocean in this true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) from the Aqua satellite. At top center, a large cluster of fires is burning northwest of Sydney, whose metropolitan area makes a mushroom-shaped clearing in the forests. At the bottom left of the image, several fires (red dots) have been detected on Tasmania, contributing to the regional haze. According to reports from Tuesday, January 28 (southeast Australia local time), light rain in parts of Victoria over the weekend provided only a brief pause to the steadily spreading bushfires, and weather conditions were expected to become increasingly favorable for fire activity by mid-week. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
The bushfires in southeast Australia are still burning out of control, and news reports indicate only substantial rainfall will extinguish them. On February 3, 2003, a smoke warning was issued for Melbourne and related areas, and this Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) image from Feb. 3 shows why. A large plume of smoke blankets the southeastern part of New South Wales and northeastern Victoria. The plume stretches out over Bass Strait toward Tasmania. To date, the fires have burned more than 2 million acres. Image courtesy the SeaWiFS Project, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/redirect?http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html ] NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE |
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Bushfires Raging in Southeas
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| Title |
Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
Firefighters in southeast Australia got a small break over the weekend of Jan. 25, as cool, damp weather gave an opportunity for fire control lines to be established around many threatened communities. Conditions are expected to become dangerous by mid-week, with temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and gusty winds. So far the blazes in Victoria and New South Wales have scorched more than 1 million acres. This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Aqua satellite on January 28, 2003, shows the fires marked in red. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC |
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Grampians National Park, Vic
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| Title |
Grampians National Park, Victoria |
| Description |
In Victoria, Australia, near the southeastern tip of the continent, sandstone mountains rise above the surrounding farmland. A 19th-century surveyor named the mountains after those in his native Scotland: Grampians. In 1984, the mountains were declared a national park. Covering 1,700 square kilometers (656 square miles), the park is home to a variety of plants and animals, many of which live nowhere else. On December 15, 2000, the Landsat 7 satellite captured this image of Grampians National Park and its surroundings in Victoria, Australia. Marked by sharp ridges, the park's sandstone mountains range in color from charcoal gray to reddish tan. Around the park is farmlandtiny rectangles of buff, beige, and brick red. Several bodies of water dot the region. The meandering water body west of the park is bordered by beige, indicative of low water levels. Along the eastern edge of the park is Halls Gap, generally used as a park entrance. East of the park is the town of Ararat. December and January fall within the Australian summer, when extremely hot, dry conditions can spark fires. A little more than five years after Landsat took this picture, a fire [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13316 ] burned nearly half the park. As its native plant species are well-adapted to fire, the vegetation appeared well on its way to recovery 12 months later, as reported on the park Web site. [ http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/resources/mresources/gramps/gramps-fire-pics.htm ] In early January 2007, a much smaller fire broke out near the park's northern end, but was quickly contained. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, residents near the park hoped for a complete ban on campfires throughout the summer to avoid another massive blaze like the January 2006 fire. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by the University of Maryland's Global Land Cover Facility. [ http://www.landcover.org/ ] |
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Drought in Southeastern Aust
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| Title |
Drought in Southeastern Australia |
| Description |
Global Agricultural Monitoring Project between NASA, USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and the University of Maryland., Spring started warm and dry in much of Australia. In addition to high land surface temperatures [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17440 ] in September 2006, many of the country's agricultural areas were facing 6- to 12-month rainfall deficiencies that the Australian Bureau of Meteorology categorized as serious, severe, or lowest on record. In southern Western Australia, one of the country's prime wheat-growing regions, rainfall between April and September was less than half the average amounts. Parts of South Australia, much of Victoria, and south-central New South Wales had been racking up deficits for 9 to 12 months or longer. Severe drought had settled over many areas. This image shows the stress on vegetationpredominantly in croplandsin southeastern Australia. The image compares vegetation greenness data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ], satellite between September 30 and October 15, 2006, to average greenness measured during the same 15-day period from 2000-2005. Satellite vegetation greenness is an indicator of the spatial extent, density, and health of vegetation at the Earth's surface. Places where the greenness was anomalously low are colored brown, places where vegetation was near average are yellow, and the few places where vegetation greenness was higher than average are green. Places where vegetation greenness couldn't be measured, perhaps due to clouds, are colored gray. A wide brown arc reaches from coastal South Australia, eastward through Victoria, and northward into New South Wales. In South Australia, the brown area covers cropland for barley, rapeseed, and wheat. In Victoria, the affected area includes those same crops plus sunflowers. All those same crops are grown in southern New South Wales, but the affected area also includes rice-growing areas. Farther north, closer to the border of Queensland, the brown arc of below-average vegetation conditions covers sorghum- and cotton-growing regions. The rainfall deficits and warm temperatures that are so strongly affecting croplands do not appear to be having as extreme an effect on natural vegetation. For example, at the border of South Australia and Victoria, several roughly rectangular areas show near-average vegetation conditions (yellow). The rectangles of comparatively normal vegetation trace out several National Parks. The brown arc extending from Victoria into New South Wales is inland of The Great Dividing Range Mountains, which follow the coastline of eastern and southeastern Australia. These mountains, home to many parks and protected areas, do a good job of ringing rainfall out of moist air coming in off the ocean, and this coastal area appears not as severely stressed as the inland crop-growing regions. Australia is prone to drought because of its geographic location. Much of Australia lies in a latitude belt that is under the influence of an atmospheric phenomenon known as the subtropical high. Just outside of the tropics in each hemisphere lies a swath of the globe where air frequently sinks toward the Earth's surface from higher in the atmosphere. The air warms and dries as it sinks, creating semi-permanent zones of high air pressure at the surface. These subtropical highs are areas of stable, warm, and dry air that favor clear skies and little rainfall. (In the Northern Hemisphere, several large deserts, including the Sahara, reside in the latitudes of the subtropical high.) Many drought episodes in the eastern and northern part of the Australia are linked to El Niño episodes. A relatively mild El Niño [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17419 ] was underway in late 2006. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by Inbal Reshef as part of the |
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Drought in Southeastern Aust
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| Title |
Drought in Southeastern Australia |
| Description |
Rainfall in southeastern Australia in 2006 was well below average, and average temperatures for the continent in November 2006 hit a record high. The climate punished vegetation across the region. In November 2006, observations of vegetation conditions captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite revealed how vegetation was struggling across much of the region. The image compares conditions in 2006 to the average November conditions from 2000-2005. All the brown areas indicate less abundant vegetation than the average. Only small, faint areas of slightly above-average vegetation conditions (green) are visible in a few locations. Gray areas indicate patches of missing data, perhaps due to persistent clouds or extremely bright soils (such as dry, salt-covered lake beds.) In many cases, areas of natural vegetation fared better than agricultural lands, appearing yellowish (average) or very light brown (slightly below average). In some cases, the locations of national parks are as obvious as if their boundaries had been drawn on the map. For example, in western Victoria, where wheat and other cereal grains are grown, the Little Desert, Grampians (southeast of Little Desert, not labeled), and Otway National Parks stand out as yellow or even yellow-green patches amid the dark brown swath of the croplands. In eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales, the vegetation of the Great Dividing Range Mountains, which run through Alpine and Kosciuszko National Parks, appears to be far closer to average conditions for this time of year than the vegetation in the inland grain-growing areas. This difference isn't surprising since native vegetation is better adapted to Australia's regularly occurring dry spells, whereas crops often depend on irrigation that can be difficult to sustain in drought conditions. The difference in greenness between native vegetation and cropland may not just be because native vegetation is better adapted to drought, however. Research in southwestern Australia indicates that the replacement of dark-colored native vegetation with paler agricultural crops, such as wheat, has changed where rain falls. The large-scale, over-turning motion of heated air (convection) that produces rain clouds occurs less often over croplands than over native vegetation. Models and observations suggest that converting natural vegetation to croplands actually reduced the amount of rainfall in those areas. Perhaps a similar effect has taken place in the region pictured here, as well. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by Inbal Reshef as part of the Global Agricultural Monitoring Project [ http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/glam.cfm ] between NASA, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and the University of Maryland. |
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Drought in Southeastern Aust
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| Title |
Drought in Southeastern Australia |
| Description |
Deep red paints the coastal mountains of southeastern Australia, hangs over the continent's arid interior, and dots much of the rest of the land in this image, indicating that unusually high temperatures reigned in November 2006. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the monthly average temperature for the country hit a record high in November. The average temperature for the continent was 2.11 degrees Celsius warmer than average, with local temperatures rising more than 4 degrees C above average for the month in places. These abnormally high air temperatures are reflected in the extreme land surface temperatures shown in this image. The land is usually much warmer to the touch than the temperature recorded by a thermometer hanging above the ground, and so, during November, land surface temperatures in Australia were as much as 10 degrees Celsius above a five-year average. The greatest deviation from normal temperatures is shown in dark red in this image. Average temperatures are white, and cooler-than-average temperatures are blue. The temperature data were collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. The temperature anomaly was greatest in the Great Dividing Range, which curves along the coasts of Victoria and New South Wales in southeast Australia. The heat and a lack of spring rain may have primed the mountains for devastating wildfires. By the end of December, several large wildfires [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14029 ] raced through the mountains, threatening local communities and clouding the skies over much of southeastern Australia with dense smoke. The high temperatures in the Great Dividing Range and elsewhere were just part of an unusually warm and dry spring, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13943 ] which in turn, was an extension of a dry year. Some of the dryness may be linked to a weak El Niñno in the Pacific Ocean. El Niñno is a regular climate pattern during which sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator heat up and trade winds weaken. Though the effects of El Niñno vary, the phenomenon often changes rainfall patterns around the world. In Australia, El Niñno often brings a dry winter and spring. It is also linked to an increase in the number of extreme fire days, during which conditions are hot, dry, and windy. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of Zhengming Wan, MODIS Land Surface Temperature Group, Institute for Computational Earth System Science [ http://www.icess.ucsb.edu/ ], University of California, Santa Barbara. |
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Dry Spring in Eastern Austra
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| Title |
Dry Spring in Eastern Australia |
| Description |
) Observations collected by MODIS between October 15-30, 2004, were compared to a three-year average of conditions for the same time period. By comparing current measurements with a long-term average, we can tell how healthy and dense the vegetation is compared to normal. Regions that are drier and less healthy than in the previous three years are shown in brown, while areas of greener-than-normal vegetation are shown in green. The lower left corner of the image shows a pattern of dryness in southern New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. The strips of tan and green within the brown area coincide with the boundaries of three national parks. The parks are areas of native vegetation, but the surrounding regions have been planted with rain-fed crops. The native vegetation shows little response to the dry spring, the surrounding regions are much more stressed than normal. The arch of dark green that curves from the northeast across the dry area corresponds to the Great Dividing Range Mountains where much of Australia's rain falls. On the coastal side of the mountains, the southeastern tip of Australia also appears to be dry. The third area that seems to be stressed by a dry spring is some of the coastal areas of southern Queensland. In this area, a separate analysis of a type of energy called "outgoing longwave radiation," revealed to scientists the most stressed locations correspond to areas where fewer clouds than normal gathered in 2004. For a related story on the use of outgoing longwave radiation measurements for monitoring clouds and rain, see "Early Dry Season in Southeast Asia." [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12569 ]) The image also reveals some good news. The region of bright green in northern New South Wales shows healthy vegetation where a bumper wheat crop is expected. MODIS NDVI anomaly image by Jesse Allen using data provided by Inbal Reshef as part of the Global Agricultural Monitoring Project between NASA, USDA?s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and the University of Maryland. Assaf Anyamba from the Goddard Earth Sciences Technology Center, and James Crutchfield with FAS, contributed to the caption as part of the same partnership. More data and information about this joint project is available at Satellite Information for Agricultural Monitoring. [ http://tripwire.geog.umd.edu/usda/ ], Even as official figures confirmed huge leaps in grain production throughout Australia since drought stunted crops in 2002, the winter crop of 2004 suffered from a dry start to the season. Winter grains normally require rain in September. In 2004, little rain fell across much of eastern Australia's crop-growing regions. Some rain did fall in the Southeast in October and November, but it came too late for the filling winter grain crop. The approaching summer brought high temperatures and strong winds in October and November, which desiccated the crops and other vegetation. As a result, below average yields are expected, says James Crutchfield, a crop analyst at the United States Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service. The drop in production could be difficult for farmers in those areas suffering from the third consecutive season of drought. The impact of the dry, hot weather is visible in this image, based on vegetation "greenness" data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite. (Satellite observations of vegetation are commonly represented using a scale called the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, or NDVI. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/MeasuringVegetation/measuring_vegetation_1.html ] |
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Dust Storm Strips Away Austr
…
| Title |
Dust Storm Strips Away Australian Topsoil |
| Description |
A low-pressure system off the southeastern corner of Australia was drawing out a cloud of dust on March 20, 2003. According to news reports, the dust plume consists primarily of topsoil that strong winds swept up off the parched landscape in that region. The province of Victoria was hit particularly hard and this is considered one of the worst dust storms in that state?s history. There is speculation that the dust plume may travel as far eastward as New Zealand. This true-color scene was acquired by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on March 20, 2003. Taking advantage of SeaWiFS' perspective near the edge of its swath, a data visualization technique can be used to make the image appear as if the sensor had viewed the horizon. However, the seeming blackness of outer space and the blue tinge of atmosphere in this scene are completely artificial. Image courtesy the SeaWiFS Project, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/redirect?http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html ] NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE |
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Fire in Wilsons Promontory N
…
| Title |
Fire in Wilsons Promontory National Park |
| Description |
A fire that started on April 1, 2005, in the Wilsons Promontory National Park on the southeastern tip of Victoria, Australia, had scorched around 17,000 acres by April 12, 2005. These images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA?s Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] and Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellites show the region before, during, and after the huge blaze. The top image shows the fire in progress on April 2, 2005. Vegetation is bright green, water is dark blue to black, and the location of the active fire is outlined in red. Within the fire perimeter detected by MODIS, active flames glow bright pink in this infrared-enhanced image. The two images below show the park before the fire started (left) and after it was winding down. The burned area appears deep red and, in one place, appears to stretch from one coast of the tiny peninsula to the other. The high-resolution image is from April 9. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides the images (March 31, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6/2005090 ] April 2, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6/2005092 ] April 9 [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6/2005099 ]) at additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ], Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fire in Wilsons Promontory N
…
| Title |
Fire in Wilsons Promontory National Park |
| Description |
A fire that started on April 1, 2005, in the Wilsons Promontory National Park on the southeastern tip of Victoria, Australia, had scorched around 17,000 acres by April 12, 2005. These images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA?s Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] and Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellites show the region before, during, and after the huge blaze. The top image shows the fire in progress on April 2, 2005. Vegetation is bright green, water is dark blue to black, and the location of the active fire is outlined in red. Within the fire perimeter detected by MODIS, active flames glow bright pink in this infrared-enhanced image. The two images below show the park before the fire started (left) and after it was winding down. The burned area appears deep red and, in one place, appears to stretch from one coast of the tiny peninsula to the other. The high-resolution image is from April 9. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides the images (March 31, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6/2005090 ] April 2, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6/2005092 ] April 9 [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6/2005099 ]) at additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ], Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Phytoplankton Bloom in the G
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| Title |
Phytoplankton Bloom in the Great Australian Bight |
| Description |
Ocean plants color the water of the Great Australian Bight off the shore of Victoria, Australia, in this photo-like Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) image, taken by NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on January 11, 2007. Called phytoplankton, these microscopic ocean plants live in the sunlit waters near the surface of the ocean. When concentrations of the plants are dense enough, phytoplankton lend the water, typically dark blue or nearly black in satellite images, a blue-green color. Some blooms are toxic to fish and people, but many are harmless or beneficial. Non-toxic phytoplankton stand at the base of the marine food chain. While phytoplankton blooms are visible from space, it's not possible to tell what type of phytoplankton are growing without samples from the water. A 250-meter-resolution KMZ file [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Jan2007/austbight_tmo_2007011.kmz ] of the phytoplankton bloom is available for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team. |
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Record Rains Hit Melbourne,
…
| Title |
Record Rains Hit Melbourne, Australia |
| Description |
Melbourne, Australia set an all time record rainfall for a 24-hour period on the evening of the February 2 and morning of February 3, 2005. With a rainfall total of 120 mm (4.7 inches), more rain fell in that 24-hour period than any other day since records began in 1856. The previous record was 108 mm. An low-pressure center that intensified over Victoria was responsible for generating the storms, which spread gusty winds and heavy downpours across southeast Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center monitors rainfall over the global Tropics. MPA rainfall totals for the February 1-3, 2005 are shown for southeastern Australia. Between roughly 40 and 75 millimeters of rain (green and yellow areas) are shown over the coastal range just north of Melbourne with locally heavier amounts of up to 4 inches (isolated red areas). The darker red areas along the east coast of New South Wales indicate areas over 100 millimeters of rainfall, and more than 75 millimeters inches of rain is shown by the orange area over the northeast tip of Tasmania. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA. Image produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC). |
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Record Rains Hit Melbourne,
…
| Title |
Record Rains Hit Melbourne, Australia |
| Description |
Melbourne, Australia set an all time record rainfall for a 24-hour period on the evening of the February 2 and morning of February 3, 2005. With a rainfall total of 120 mm (4.7 inches), more rain fell in that 24-hour period than any other day since records began in 1856. The previous record was 108 mm. An low-pressure center that intensified over Victoria was responsible for generating the storms, which spread gusty winds and heavy downpours across southeast Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center monitors rainfall over the global Tropics. MPA rainfall totals for the February 1-3, 2005 are shown for southeastern Australia. Between roughly 40 and 75 millimeters of rain (green and yellow areas) are shown over the coastal range just north of Melbourne with locally heavier amounts of up to 4 inches (isolated red areas). The darker red areas along the east coast of New South Wales indicate areas over 100 millimeters of rainfall, and more than 75 millimeters inches of rain is shown by the orange area over the northeast tip of Tasmania. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA. Image produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC). |
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Fires in Southeast Australia
| Title |
Fires in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
Across southeastern Australia, numerous fires were burning when the Aqua satellite passed over head on April 7, 2004. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on the satellite collected this image and detected the locations of the actively burning fires, which are marked in yellow in this image. Fires are scattered across (clockwise from top left) South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania (bottom right corner). In New South Wales and most of Victoria, the fires are located away from dense vegetation, which appears deep greenish-brown. This pattern, as well as the season, suggests they are agriculturally related fires, perhaps pasture burning. Though not necessarily immediately hazardous, such large-scale burning can have a strong impact on weather, climate, human health, and natural resources. The smokier fires on Tasmania and in eastern Victoria may be of a different naturepossibly wildfires or prescribed fires in forest lands. The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-GSFC |
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Fires in Southeast Australia
| Title |
Fires in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
On April 13, 2007, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite captured this image of multiple fires burning in southeastern Australia, in the states of Victoria and New South Wales. Locations of active fires are marked in red. According to information from Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment, fires across the region were a mixture of managed fires to reduce fuel loads (dry vegetation) as well as bushfires. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/?SEAustralia3 ] images of the region in additional resolutions and formats, including an infrared-enhanced "false-color" version that highlights burned areas. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Southeast Australia
| Title |
Fires in Southeast Australia |
| Description |
On April 20, 2007, numerous fires were burning across southeastern Australia. When NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite passed over the region, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] captured this image showing numerous fires (locations marked in red) in New South Wales and Victoria. Large fires in the northern Barry Mountains were churning out thick smoke, while to the southeast, scattered fires dotted the Gippsland region along the coast. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides the image [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/?SEAustralia3/2007110 ] in additional resolutions and formats. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
Bushfires were burning out of control in several locations in southern Australia in mid-January 2006. Firefighters faced blazes across southern Western Australia, South Australia, and Victoria, which is pictured in this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite. The image was captured on January 22. Actively burning fires detected by MODIS are outlined in red, and most of the fires are accompanied by long plumes of smoke blowing southeast. The city of Melbourne sit roughly in the center of the scene, wrapped around the northern coast of keyhole-shaped Port Phillip Bay. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team. |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
In southwestern Victoria, Australia, a dangerous wildfire was raging on January 24, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite passed overhead and collected this image. The dark green vegetation of Grampians National Park is shrouded with smoke that drifts hundreds of kilometers to the north before crossing westward into South Australia. The actively burning areas of the fire detected by MODIS are outlined in red. According to a news report [ http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200601/s1553619.htm ] from January 24, more than a dozen houses had been lost in the fire, which had burned more than 90,000 hectares (900 square kilometers, which is a little more than 222,000 acres). NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
The wildfire activity in Victoria, Australia, continued to worsen on Thursday, January 26, 2006. According to news reports, the fire in the Grampians National Park, pictured here, intensified and spotted beyond containment lines that firefighters had created to check the blaze. Numerous, widely scattered "hot spots" are visible in this image, which is made from visible and infrared wavelengths of light detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite on January 26. Red outlines enclose areas where MODIS detected fires, and in this type of image, the bright pink glow usually indicates areas of open flame. Unburned vegetation is bright green, and smoke is blue. The large image shows several additional fires burning in the state, including a large blaze northeast of the coastal city of Melbourne and one farther east in the Gippsland region, both of which have been threatening nearby towns in recent days. A natural-color image from the MODIS Rapid Response Team shows smoke spreading southward toward Tasmania. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
On January 30, 2006, the smoke died down and the clouds cleared over Grampians National Park in western Victoria, Australia. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite captured this image revealing the large area burned by a wildfire in previous weeks. Using a combination of visible light and shortwave and near-infrared energy detected by the sensor, this image shows the burned area in bright red and unburned vegetation in bright green. Areas where vegetation is naturally sparse are light tan, sometimes tinged with green or pink. According to reports [ http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/dse/nrenfoe.nsf/childdocs/-05D409B0BFBBAD5BCA256DA600074990?open ] from the state government's Department of Sustainability and the Environment, the fire had scorched about 130,000 hectares (1,300 square kilometers, or about 321,237 acres) as of January 30. This image shows the area at MODIS' maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The large image shows a wider area of the state. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6 ] of this area in a variety of formats. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
According to reports from the park's Website, [ http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_display.cfm?park=109 ] a bushfire in Grampians National Park in western Victoria, Australia, had grown to more than 122,770 hectares (1,227.7 square kilometers, or about 303,000 acres) as of January 25, 2005. All access roads to the park have been closed to the public as firefighters battle the blaze. With several large fires burning in other locations throughout the state, the government had declared a statewide total fire ban. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite shows the massive blaze on January 25. The actively burning parts of the fire that MODIS detected are outlined in red. The thick smoke hides the ground from view and spreads far to the west over the neighboring state, South Australia. The MODIS Rapid Response Team at Goddard Space Flight Center provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/ ] of the area. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
In the forested mountains of Victoria's Gippsland region, several fires were burning on April 19, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite passed over. Places where the sensor detected actively burning fires are marked in red. Plumes of bluish smoke drift southeastward over the Tasman Sea. The westernmost fire in the scene is burning west of the town of Dargo, and it was started by an abandoned campfire, according to news reports [ http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1618903.htm ] from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Website. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6/ ] of the area in a variety of resolutions and formats. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center. |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
A river of smoke more than 25 kilometers wide flowed southeast toward the Tasman Sea from fires burning in the Great Dividing Range Mountains in Victoria, Australia, on December 5, 2006. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite shows the smoke crossing Ninety Mile Beach and spreading out over the sea. Fires (red outlines) were detected across a broad area of the mountains between Lake Eildon and the Dartmouth Reservoir. According to news reports, 50 firesmost of them in remote forests and parkswere burning out of control across Victoria in early December, and fire conditions were predicted to worsen in subsequent days. Across Australia in 2006, fires sprang up before summer was even officially underway. An ongoing drought and high temperatures have created extremely risky conditions for fires in many parts of the country. In late November and early December, satellites captured numerous images of fires in places as far flung as northwestern Australia and Southern Queensland. (See other images in the Natural Hazards: Fires [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?topic=fire ] section.) In most of Victoria (among other places in the country), rainfall in the six months preceding the outbreak of these fires was categorized as either at a "severe deficiency" or "lowest on record," according to maps [ http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/rainmaps.cgi ] provided by the Website of the Australian government's Bureau of Meteorology. The Bureau's November 22, 2006, seasonal El Niño-Southern Oscillation update [ http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/ ] indicated that the current El Niño had strengthened throughout November. A strong El Niño could be bad news for firefighters in southeastern Australia. According to the Bureau of Meteorology Website, "El Niño events are associated with an increase in the number of extreme fire-risk days over southeastern Australia, that is, days which are hot, dry and windy." The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides twice-daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6 ] of the area in additional resolutions. A 250-meter-resolution KMZ file [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/Australia.A2006339.0050.250m.kmz ] of the Victorian fires is available for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html ] NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
Fires burned across many regions of Australia throughout late spring 2006, including Western Australia, southern Queensland, Cape York Peninsula, and New South Wales. (See other events in the Natural Hazards: Fires [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?topic=fire ] section for additional images.) On December 4, Victoria joined the group. This image shows dozens of fires (marked in red) burning in the southern Great Dividing Range Mountains (Barry Range) northeast of Melbourne. Gray-brown smoke hangs over the region between Lake Eildon and the town of Bright to the northeast. The image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides twice-daily images of Southeast Australia in additional resolutions and formats. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/?SEAustralia3/ ] NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
Huge clouds of smoke from numerous fires in Victoria billowed over the state and into neighboring New South Wales on December 7, 2006. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite shows active fire locations that MODIS detected outlined in red. Brownish-gray smoke hides the mountains where the fires were burning. Much of the area is park and reserve land, and it is rugged and remote, making control difficult. Fire behavior was extreme, according to fire officials, heat generated by the fires caused strong updrafts that picked up embers and spread them in all direction. Fire activity was predicted to intensify over the weekend. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides twice-daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/?SEAustralia3 ] in a variety of resolutions and formats. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
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) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] 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. 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. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6 ] images of the region in additional resolutions and formats, including an infrared-enhanced version that highlights burned areas and openly flaming fire fronts. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
Between Lake Eildon and the Dartmouth Reservoir in Victoria, Australia, dozens of active fires churned out thick clouds of smoke in early December. In remote, rugged terrain in the Great Dividing Range Mountains, firefighters battled the blazes in hot, windy conditions. This image of the area was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite on December 10, 2006. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fire are marked with red outlines. The smoke pours southeast over the Bass Strait. Puffy towers of clouds are embedded in the smoke, these clouds may be the result of strong updrafts and aerosols (particles in the air that can act as "seeds" for cloud droplets) produced by the fires themselves, or they may be part of the larger-scale weather pattern over the area. The next day, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/?SEAustralia3/2006345 ] a swath of clouds over the region may have provided some relief for firefighters. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/?SEAustralia3/ ] images of the region in additional resolutions. A 250-meter-resolution KMZ file [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Dec2006/Australia.A2006344.0345.250m.kmz ] is available for use with Google Earth. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
Thick smoke hung over Victoria and spread eastward to the Tasman Sea on December 8, 2006. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite passed over head that morning and captured this image, only a few of the active fires (marked in red) could be detected through the smoke. Although Melbourne had been spared the thick smoke on previous days, on this morning, the plume was encroaching on the northeast edge of the metro area. Skies over the Snowy Range Mountains in New South Wales cleared to the north. At least 50 fires were burning in early December in Victoria, and many were threatening to merge into unified, large blazes. Weather conditions over the weekend were predicted to deteriorate, making the work of firefighters even more difficult. High temperatures and far-below-average rainfall in the area have elevated the late spring fire hazard across the region. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides twice-daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6 ] of the area in additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
| Title |
Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
Australian firefighters have been battling huge fires in remote forests and parks in the Barry Mountains (part of the Great Dividing Range) of Victoria since early December 2006. Toward the middle of the month, fires began threatening small communities, and several houses were destroyed. This pair of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite was captured on December 14, 2006. The top image is natural color, similar to a digital photo, while the bottom image uses both visible and infrared light to thin the smoke and highlight burning areas. Red outlines trace the boundaries of areas where MODIS detected actively burning fires. Inside the fire outlines in the false-color image, bright pink glows often indicate open flame. These glows appear in places not surrounded by red fire outlines, which suggests the smoke was too thick for the software that interprets the MODIS data to confidently label the area as fire. Fires are spread over a wide area. Mount Beauty, Dargo, and several small communities along the Macalister River are among those most threatened by the fires. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/?SEAustralia3/2006348 ] images of the region in additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
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Fires in Victoria, Australia |
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A river of smoke more than 250 kilometers wide flowed northwest across the Victoria-New South Wales border on December 12, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite passed over head and captured this image. Bushfires had been burning in the Great Dividing Range Mountains for nearly two weeks. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fire on this day are outlined in red. It's likely that additional fires that couldn't be detected through the very thick smoke were burning in the area east of Lake Eildon. According to news reports, army bulldozers were arriving in the area to construct fire breaks in the watershed area north of Lake Thomson, which provides a significant portion of Melbourne's water supply. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Australia6/ ] images of the region in additional resolutions. A 250-meter-resolution KMZ file [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Dec2006/Australia.A2006346.0055.250m.kmz ] of the Victoria fires is available for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html ] NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Victoria, Australia
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Fires in Victoria, Australia |
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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 [ http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_display.cfm ] 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) [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov ] on the agency's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] 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. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and the U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] |
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