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Images of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and Australia from 2006 and December 2006
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Fires in Southeast Australia
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Fires in Southeast Australia |
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In the final week of April, clouds often blanketed southeastern Australia when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite passed overhead, blocking the sensor's view of the fires that were burning in the region. On April 26, Aqua MODIS captured this image of the area, and through a parting in the thin clouds, several fires (locations marked in red) were detected in the Barry Mountains. These mountains were devastated by huge bushfires [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14000 ] in December 2006 and January 2007. 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. 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 |
In the final week of April, clouds often blanketed southeastern Australia when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite passed overhead, blocking the sensor's view of the fires that were burning in the region. On April 26, Aqua MODIS captured this image of the area, and through a parting in the thin clouds, several fires (locations marked in red) were detected in the Barry Mountains. These mountains were devastated by huge bushfires [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14000 ] in December 2006 and January 2007. 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. 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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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 |
| Description |
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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Fires in Victoria, Australia
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Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
Rivers of smoke up to 50 kilometers (31 miles) wide poured from burning areas in Victoria's Great Dividing Range Mountains on January 11, 2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite passed overhead and captured this image. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are outlined in red. Many fires were burning dangerously close to Lake Thomson, the principal source of water for the city of Melbourne (beyond the western edge of the image). According to news reports on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Website, a change in winds overnight between January 11 and 12 eased the fire threat somewhat, but both stock and pasture were lost to flames in previous days. The moderated conditions allowed firefighters to conduct backburns (controlled burns of areas in the path of the wildfires) and build containment lines. Still, the danger of these fires, some of which have been burning in the region since early December 2006, remains high. Hundreds of thousands of hectares (1 hectare is about 2.5 acres) have been burned in Victoria since late 2006. Extremely dry, windy, and hot conditions since spring have kept the fire danger extreme across much of the region for weeks at a time. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, extreme fire conditions in the area are more common during years when El Niño events occur. During the fall and early winter (2006-2007), an El Niño likely influenced the area's climate. However, according to the Bureau's most recent (January 10, 2007) update, the ongoing El Niño appeared to be weakening, which they said "bodes well for a switch towards wetter conditions across Australia sometime in the late summer or autumn." NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, 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 |
| Description |
Clouds had been hiding Victoria from the view of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites in previous weeks, but when the skies cleared on January 10, 2007, it was obvious that fires that had been burning in the area since early December 2006 were still raging. Places where Terra MODIS detected actively burning fires are outlined in red. Rivers of smoke pour from the burning vegetation. Although vegetation in this dry part of the world doesn't appear as vibrantly green as forests in wetter parts of the world, there is nevertheless a clear difference between forests that have burned and those that have not burned (or were lightly burned). The unburned areas appear dark green, while the burned areas appear brown. A huge swath of the Great Dividing Range Mountains between Lake Eildon and the town of Omeo burned in late 2006 and early 2007. The fires may continue for several months. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/?SEAustralia3/2007010/FAS_SEAustralia3.2007010.terra ] of the area in a variety of resolutions and formats, including an infrared-enhanced version that makes the burn scar more obvious. A 250-meter-resolution KMZ file [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Jan2007/Australia.A2007010.0025.250m.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
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Fires in Victoria, Australia |
| Description |
Fires that began in early December 2006 were still raging through the Great Dividing Range Mountains of eastern Victoria, Australia, on January 16, 2007. This image of the region was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite just before 11:00 a.m. local time. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are outlined in red. The forested mountains were green where they had not burned and deep brown where the fires had scorched them. Homes and livestock were lost near Tatong on January 16, when strong winds and high temperatures increased fire activity. 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 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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