Abstract
The development of continental-scale fire mapping using AVHRR since the early 1990s and, more recently, MODIS imagery, is transforming our understanding of Australian fire regimes—particularly the national significance of savanna burning. The savannas of northern Australia are the most fire-prone part of a fire-prone continent. The savanna region comprises 1,898,562 km2 (24.7% of the Australian landmass), of which 21% has been burnt on average each year, over the period 1997–2005. Savanna fires currently contribute about 68% of national fire extent annually—the remainder comprising mostly fire in central Australia (associated in recent years with decadally high rainfall, hence high fuel loads), with just 2% in relatively densely populated southern Australia. At finer scales of resolution employing LANDSAT imagery, northern Australian studies since the early 1980s are providing novel landscape-scale assessments including monitoring of fire regime heterogeneity and biomass burning emissions. While seasonality has been shown in a number of studies to be correlated with fire intensity, remote sensing studies of fire severity are just commencing. The paper particularly addresses recent north Australian studies that explore the importance of spatial and temporal patchiness in fire extent and severity.
Highlights
Australia is recognised as one of the most fire-prone of continents (Dwyer et al 2000, Duncan et al 2003, Carmona-Moreno et al 2005), with most contemporary fire extent occurring in tropical savanna biomes of monsoonal northern Australia (Craig et al 2000; Meyer 2004; Russell-Smith et al 2003c, 2007)
While hot spot and fire mapping products derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery are used in website fire information applications, and automated fire mapping products are currently under development through the Western Australia Department of Land Information, few regional assessments have been undertaken using this data source
One exception concerns recent assessment of albedo change associated with north Australian savanna burning using the MODIS instrument (Jin and Roy 2005)
Summary
Australia is recognised as one of the most fire-prone of continents (Dwyer et al 2000, Duncan et al 2003, Carmona-Moreno et al 2005), with most contemporary fire extent occurring in tropical savanna biomes of monsoonal northern Australia (Craig et al 2000; Meyer 2004; Russell-Smith et al 2003c, 2007). For northern Australia a variety of AVHRR- and especially LANDSAT-scale fire mapping studies have been undertaken to characterise regional fire regimes, and address attendant ecological, greenhouse gas emissions, and land management issues (e.g., Press 1988; Beringer et al 1995; Russell-Smith et al 1997, 2003a, 2003c; Gill et al 2000, 2003; Edwards et al 2001; Williams et al 2002; Bowman et al 2003, 2004; Fisher et al 2003; Yates and Russell-Smith 2003; Vigilante et al 2004; Spessa et al 2005; Felderhof and Gillieson 2006). An associated recent development has been growing appreciation of the need to better understand and measure spatial patchiness of fire extent and severity components in north Australian savannas for various ecological, greenhouse, and landscape management applications.
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