Located in the south-western region of Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula, the Landsat images time-lapsed in Ground Truth – Fire, Flood and Human Endeavour are shown as sets of true and false colour. Fire is a regular event in northern Queensland, particularly during the late dry season when grasses and trees are at their driest. Maps of fire scars are useful to improve understanding and management of fire in the Queensland landscape.
A ‘fire scar’ is the visibly blackened land surface left after bushfires burn vegetation and leaf litter. When viewed from space using satellite imagery, fire scars are visible as blackened, charred areas or appear as deep purple in the false colour imagery. Sometimes, if the satellite passes over the fire at the right time, the active fire front can be seen as thin bright red or pink lines.
The Cape York region was historically managed through traditional indigenous burning practices and fires today are the result of both natural events (lightning strikes) and human activity such as organised burning off, indigenous burning practices and improved carbon management by using patchy and cooler early dry season burns.
Date captured: 05/11/1996
This false colour Landsat image was captured on 7 October 2014 during an active grass fire. The large fire scar can be seen as a deep purple colour and the active fire front is visible as thin bright red and pink lines. Smoke appears as blue streams coming out of the active fire area. Unburnt grasses and vegetation are shown in green.
False colour – bands 6 (thermal), 4 (near infrared), 1 (visible blue)
True colour – bands 3 (visible red), 2 (visible green), 1 (visible blue)
Date captured: 07/10/2014
This false colour Landsat image was captured on 7 October 2014 during an active grass fire. The large fire scar can be seen as a deep purple colour and the active fire front is visible as thin bright red and pink lines. Smoke appears as blue streams coming out of the active fire area. Unburnt grasses and vegetation are shown in green.
Date captured: 23/10/2014
This false colour Landsat image was captured on 23 October 2014 during a number of active grass fires. The large fire scars can be seen as a deep purple colour and the active fire fronts are clearly visible as thin bright red and pink lines. Smoke appears as blue streams coming out of the active fire area and is covering a large part of the upper left of the image. Unburnt grasses and vegetation are shown in green.
See the whole story
Visit one of our upcoming Ground Truth – Fire, Flood and Human Endeavour exhibitions to immersere yourself in 30 years of changes to the Birdsville and Diamantina River.
The Ground Truth immersive media exhibitions bring to life satellite imagery of the Greater Brisbane Region, the Channel Country and Cape York to show us how humans and nature are changing the environment we live in.
Step forwards and backwards through time and sound for an interactive journey through some of Queensland’s most cyclical and rapidly changing landscapes.
