| Home | Canberra Region Fires - satellite maps |
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Update 2005 This page was written during the serious bushfires that devastated almost all of the bushland around Canberra and vast tracts of the wild country of SE Australia during January-February 2003. It is obviously out of date now, but the maps below are still of some interest. The first image is an animation of satellite reported fires on a daily basis showing fire progress around Canberra during this period. Other maps do show the extent of the areas burnt out. Most eucalypt trees will normally regenerate surprsingly quickly after fire but unfortunately the 2003 fires were so severe that in many areas the trees are dead -- as you can see from some of my panoramic photos. Fire summary last updated 7th February 2003 There was confirmation today that the historic Nil Desperandum cottage near Canberra has gone, particularly poignant for some of us.
The Progress of the Canberra Fires to 31st Jan  For FASTER ANIMATION, click on image, and wait... |
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The maps accessible from links at right are composites of images taken from the Sentinel bush fire mapping website. This site gives access to a GIS dataset of what are called "hotspots". Hotspots are detected by satellite on a regular basis, as the satellites pass overhead and are defined as areas where the temperature is above a set threshhold. In practice this is designed to show the location of bush fires to a one km accuracy/resolution The original maps are computer generated from the satellite data, I have joined and superimposed some web versions and added some locations and names. There may be errors in the locations. The original maps, as stated, are all taken from the CSIRO developed GIS (accessed through the Sentinal website) and copyright remains as shown on the images. I reproduce these modified maps here to allow easier access, to show different presentations, and to reduce load on the Sentinal site. The maps show graphically the extent of the damage in the region, as well as the current situation (well, 6-24 hours ago anyway). The loss in the ACT is terrible including lives and homes of course, but losses in the Snowys and in Victorian Alps are even greater in environmental terms. Much of the bush in those areas is not fire adapted, and regeneration will take decades or in some cases (snowgums) up to 100 years. The effect on the grasslands above the treeline is also problematical. One of Australia's greatest environmental treasures and pleasure playgrounds has been / is being decimated. The animation at the top is made using images from the same website. It shows each day from the start of these fires until today. Overseas readers need to know that the Landsat satellite image in the background is not exactly realistic - the country this summer is uniformly brown or at best grey-green, and the lake in the north-east corner (Lake George) is completely empty. The image below is more accurate in its rendition of the drought-stricken landscape. If your browser shrinks the big maps to fit your screen, you will need to zoom in to be able to see it properly. There are plenty more maps at the Sentinel website, go there if you want more detail about Victoria or other fires. It is very slow in daytime, so be prepared to wait.  |
Old MapsOther Old Maps
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 Smoke during the north westerly winds. Compare with... |
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Copyright © 2003 Julian Robinson This page updated: 07Feb2003/25Apr2004/5Apr2005 |
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