Darwin Fires from Space

[multiweb (Marc)]

A good view of Darwin from Space extending towards WA and Broome.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Great photo , but these damn burn offs are a pain , ruin the good seeing ( like a fine haze in the air ) and cause ash to land out side every where , that causes BLACK !! foot prints thru the house , I have to wash my deck once a week and mop inside every 2 weeks during the dry , a pain !
Not to mention the smoke ! cant be good for our health .
I know its gotta be done , but ,,,,,,,,
Brian.

[PCH (Paul)]

Hey Brian,

as a matter of interest, what are those burn offs for, I mean what are they supposed toachieve? I'd be interested to hear...

Cheers,

[astroron (Ron)]

I really don't know why they make a big deal of pictures taken from the IIS and other satellites of fires on various parts of the Earth,
The pictures are taken from a maximum of 400kms, nobody remarks on pictures about clouds taken from the same view point.
We get Volcano's giving out more smoke and ash without much fan fare of pictures taken of them from space.
All really "Ho Hum" to me.
I saw clouds over the coast from out past Charleville which is about 600kms I guess.
Cheers

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Paul they do them up here because up here it does not rain for 5-6 months and it gets very , very dry so the do controlled burn offs to minimise the damage if there is a bush fire , remember the horrible fires down south a couple of years ago ? terrible stuff .
'Preventitive maintiance' , they call it .
Brian.

Originally Posted by PCH

Hey Brian,

as a matter of interest, what are those burn offs for, I mean what are they supposed toachieve? I'd be interested to hear...

Cheers,

[rogerco (Roger)]

Paul, specifically they do it to reduce the fuel loading on the ground in stategic areas in the hope of reducing the impact of wild fires.

In the southern and eastern parts of the country they now have to take smoke drift into account but as we know too well the weather can change and smoke does get across populated areas. But its far better than the alternative.

[skytry (Peter)]

hi Marc,
yes, I know it well, followed me from Palmerston / Broome,
unable to use the scope for photo's, way too bad,

as I go south it is not too bad, CLEAR skies,
hopefully out of it now, so may get some photo's,

Marc, its a great photo',

regards,
Peter.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by PCH

as a matter of interest, what are those burn offs for, I mean what are they supposed toachieve? I'd be interested to hear...

Paul,
The theory is that by doing spot burns they leave the wildlife somewhere it can escape the fire. Next year they will burn areas between the spots they did this year. At the same time they reduce the chances of runaway wildfires by reducing the fuel load.
The RFS and NPWS have been doing control burns around Sydney over the last few weeks. They want to get this done before October because the temperatures are lower and the humidity higher which makes them more controllable.

[leon]

Yep that is about right, the smoke is constant, they burn the place to the ground each year.

Leon

[PCH (Paul)]

Hi Brian, Roger and Andrew,

thanks for all that. Now I understand

[RobF (Rob)]

The guys at Undara (lava tubes) talked about it a lot when we visited after the eclipse last year. Considered good land management. The alternative as others have said is dangerous widespread blazes. Much of the flora actually requires bushfires for germination. The natural state is bushfires all over the place in summer from lightning strikes, so if you don't do it yourself Mother Nature has a way of making it happen when you least expect anyway.

Great pic too Marc - thanks for sharing