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Comprehensive look at the Australian bushfires disasters
Around the world, the 2019–2020 Australian fire season was also one of the worst on record. Australia experienced unprecedented heat waves, including temperatures reaching 120° F (49.1° C) in January across central and eastern Australia. NASA’s satellites tracked the event in real time and collected large volumes of data that scientists and researchers can use to study the regional and global effects of the disaster. Using NASA data to visualize the footprint of the fires, the height of the smoke plumes, and the transport of particulate matter allows patterns to be revealed.
With ArcGIS StoryMaps, users can interact with NASA’s data and perform time- series analysis, zoom to areas of interest, and toggle data layers to reveal patterns and trends. For example, a web app focused on the 2019–2020 Australian Bushfires using NASA data allows anyone to explore the causes and effects of the fires. The NASA app can be found linked at GISforScience.com.
Fire Weather Index
By 2019, a combination of long-term warming, rainfall deficiency, and oceanic circulation anomalies left ground conditions in Australia extremely susceptible to fires. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has developed the Global Fire WEather Database (GFWED) to better understand the Fire Weather Index, a parameter that reveals how different weather factors are influencing the likelihood of a vegetation fire starting and spreading. The Fire Weather Index is similar to fire danger indices used operationally in Australia to account for current and antecedent rainfall, humidity, temperature, and wind speed.
During Australia’s unprecedented 2019 fire season, brushfires engulfed many parts of the continent, including coastal areas in the more populous south and southeast. Wildfires burned more than 10 million hectares, an area roughly the size of Iceland. Flames destroyed 5,900 buildings, including 2,800 homes, according to the United Nations, and the dire impact on the ecosystem included the deaths of millions of animals.
Additionally, initial studies estimated that fires destroyed roughly 20% of the continent’s forests and put much more flora at risk, including the extremely rare wild Wollemi pines. Fewer than 200 of these prehistoric trees remain in a secluded area about 125 miles northwest of Sydney, and firefighters were deployed on a special mission to save them.
A cane fire in New South Wales, Australia, 2019.
October 21, 2019 8:00 p.m.
By 2019, a combination of long-term warming, rainfall deficiency, and oceanic circulation anomalies left Australia extremely susceptible to fires. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center developed GFWED, integrating different weather factors influencing the likelihood of a vegetation fire starting and spreading (see the map of October 21, 2019). It is based on the Fire Weather Index (FWI), the most widely used fire weather system in the world.
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September 19, 2019 8:00 p.m.