Canberra, Australia Wildfires
ASTER VNIR

Wildfires occurred in the neighbor of Canberra, Australia on 18th January 2003 have caused the death of 4 people and burnt 419 homes. Thousands of people in the area were forced to evacuate as the city declared the state of emergency. On 21st, fire posed a threat to the city area, involving thousands of residents in firefight activities.

In order to grasp the scale of the overall damage by the fires, We carried out emergency observation (fig.1) by ASTER over Canberra area on 24th January 2003 and made comparison with the image of the same area before the fire attack (on 12th February 2001, fig.2). In the image, color of a large area to the immediate west of Canberra has turned from red to deep green after the fire strike, a clear indication of damages by burn out. Smoke from the fire is shown in the color of whitish blue in the image.

Fig.3 is a larger scaled image with Canberra at the center. Area struck by the wildfires is shown in dark gray and smoke coming out in whitish blue, hanging over as if it extends to cover up the whole Canberra area anytime soon.