NAFI’s Practical Mapping Tools: Track Fires: Assessment & Response

Beyond locating fires, the NAFI site can also be used to get more information on the behaviour of an active fire. The tools to do this are found in the Track Fires menu – click the tab to the right of the View Fire Maps tab. You should then see the left hand menu with the various tools for tracking fires.

Recently Burnt Areas

These layers are exactly the same as the ones displayed in the ‘Fire Histories’ tab. The reason they are displayed in both tabs is because these layers are useful for the ‘Planning’, ‘Assessment’ and the ‘Response’ stages. The layers display the most recent set of two to four years of fire scars, which in the far north can be a good guide to grassy fuel levels.

By clicking on one of the layers in the Show Recent Burnt Areas menu you can display the most recent sets of two to four years of fire scars. In the far north of the region, where rainfall is reliant annually, this can provide a good guide to grassy fuel levels.

In the map above, the white and pale pink areas have not been burnt for three and two years respectively, and may have more fuel available for fire.

To restore the map of current year fire scars, click ‘Standard Map‘. Using the satellite image background and the slider bar to fade the fire scars can also be useful.

Recent HiRes Fire Scars

This section provides access to recent high-resolution (10-20m per pixel) burnt area mapping for regions where the mapping is regularly available. The mapping is produced using the European Space Agency’s high-resolution Sentinel-2 satellite imagery.

The Arnhem Land and Kimberley mapping is produced by NAFI and the Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research mappers using the same standards and similar methodologies to NAFI’s MODIS mapping products.

The Northern Territory’s Darwin and Katherine regional mapping is produced using a robust semi-automated methodology provided by NAFI which is manually edited and verified by the Northern Territory Government’s Bushfires NT mappers for the reliable production of high-resolution burnt area mapping.

The Queensland mapping is provided by the Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science (DES) using machine learning and specialised operational mapping technology to produce a monthly burnt area mapping product.

Current Curing

This layer shows the current levels of the curing (drying) of vegetation. It is a pixel-based product measured using 250m resolution MODIS satellite data. It provides a general guide to the current ‘greenness’ of the vegetation.

Check Fire Spread

This menu item has two useful tools for checking how rapidly and in what direction a fire is spreading as well as where it may have started.

!Important Note

Care should be taken interpreting hotspot data given that the satellites may not have detected all hotpots in a fire. Additionally, the location of the earliest detected hotspot may not necessarily be where the fire started. The actual early stages of a fire may have been too cool to be detected by satellites or may have occurred on days where detection was hampered by cloud cover.

Query Hotspot Times

The ‘Query hotspot times’ tool displays in a table the times at which all hotspots in an area you select were detected by satellite. This table can be useful for analysing how a fire is spreading and where it may have started from. The tool can be used on recent hotspots as well as those from past months and years. Below is a demonstration of how to use this tool followed by a step-by-step guide.

Query Hotspot Times Step-By-Step Guide

  1. Zoom to the hotspots you want to query.
  2. Select ‘Track Fires’.
  3. In the menu click ‘Check Fire Spread’.
  4. In the sub-menu click ‘Query hotspot times’.
  5. You should notice your cursor will have a yellow dot indicating that the tool is ready to select your hotspots.
  1. Make a polygon around the hotspots you would like to query by single-clicking around the outside of the hotspots and double-clicking to finish.
  1. The boundary of your polygon will turn red.
  1. A pop-up table with your search results will appear. Move this box if it appears over the hotspots you are querying by drag-and-dropping with your mouse (click on the box, keep your finger held down on the mouse and drag the box to the side. Release your mouse to let go).
  2. Explore the table – the list tells you the date and time in which the satellites detected each hotspot within the area selected (the first column), then the source satellite and organisation as well as the individual Id assigned to that hotspot (used by site administrators).
  3. Hover your cursor over each row in the table and you will notice the hotspot it is describing will change colour on your map. The table is ordered with the earliest hotspots at the top, so highlighting the topmost hotspots in the table can give you information on where the fire may have started.
  4. When you are finished close the box using the ‘X’ button at the top right of the table.

You may note there can be multiple hotspots recorded in a single location.  

Visualise Spread

The ‘Visualise Spread‘ tools can provide insight to how a fire is spreading by animating hotspots based on the time of detection (0-6 hours pink, 6-12 hours red and hotspots older than 12 hours grey).

Important!

Care should be taken interpreting these animations as the satellites may not have detected all hotpots in a fire.

The menu contains two animation tools. The first tool ‘Hotspots (last week)’ allows you to animate the hotspots displayed on the standard NAFI map (hotspots up to 7 days old) and the second, ‘Hotspots (older)’, will allow you to animate hotspots within a defined timeseries including hotspots older than 7 days. Note; these tools are designed to animate single fires only. They have a limit of 160,000 km2 (around 400 X 400 km).

Hotspots (last week)

This tool is for hotspots displayed on the standard NAFI map (hotspots up to 7 days old). Watch the movie and/or follow the step-by-step guide below.

Hotspots (last week) Step-By-Step Guide

  1. Using the standard map display of current hotspots and burnt area; zoom to the hotspots you want to query.
  2. Select ‘Track Fires’
  3. Select ‘Check Fire Spread’.
  4. In the sub-menu under the heading ‘Visualise Spread’ click ‘hotspot (last week).
  1. A pop-up ‘Animate hotspots’ box will appear. Move this box (drag-and-drop) if it appears over the hotspots you are wanting to animate.
  2. Select ‘1. display hotspot area to animate (help)’ for more detailed information about how to use the tools.
  3. Click on the ‘2. select area’ button to make a polygon around the hotspots you would like to animate.
  4. Your cursor will appear with a yellow dot at the tip indicating that the tool is ready.
  1. Make a polygon around the hotspots you would like to animate – single-click around the outside of the hotspots of interest and double click to finish. The boundary of your polygon will turn red.
  1. Next you select the ‘3. play’ button and wait for your animation to load. Note if there are a lot of hotspots to animate or your internet is slow; a spinning wheel and ‘Loading’ notification will display in the bottom right-hand corner of your map.
  1. You will notice a slider bar, current hotspots data and the ‘3. Play’ button change to ‘3. pause’. This allows you to view the date and time of the highlighted hotspots, pause the animation at any time or move the slider bar to highlight/analyse different timeframes.

Once loaded, the animation will automatically begin to play and the hotspots will cycle through in order of occurrence turning pink (0-6 hours after detection), red (6-12 hours after detection) and grey (over 12 hours after detection).

  1. When you are finished close the box using the ‘X’ button at the top right of the table.

Hotspots (older)

This tool will allow you to animate hotspots within a defined timeseries including hotspots older than 7 days. Watch the movie and/or follow the step-by-step guide below.

Hotspots (older) Step-By-Step Guide

  1. Zoom to the hotspots you want to query.
  2. Select ‘Track Fires’
  3. Select ‘Check Fire Spread’.
  4. In the sub-menu under the heading ‘Visualise Spread’ click ‘hotspot (older).
  1. A pop-up ‘Animate hotspots’ box will appear. Move this box (drag-and-drop) if it appears over the hotspots you are wanting to animate.
  2. Step one provides a link to more detailed information about how to use the tool.
  3. Click on the ‘2. select area’ button to make a polygon around the hotspots you would like to animate.
  4. Your cursor will appear with a yellow dot at the tip indicating that the tool is ready.
  1. Make a polygon around the hotspots you would like to animate – single-click around the outside of the hotspots of interest and double click to finish. The boundary of your polygon will turn red.
  2. Click in the Box next to ‘start date:’ and a calendar will appear.
  3. Use the side arrows to select the relevant month.
  4. Click on the relevant day.
  5. You can use the slider bars below the calendar to select a specific time down the minute.
  6. Select the ‘Done’ button to complete.
  7. Repeat the same for the ‘end date’. If viewing hotspot to your current time and date simply select the ‘Now’ button and the calendar will be automatically filled.
  1. Next you select the ‘play’ button and wait for your animation to load. Note if there are a lot of hotspots to animate or your internet is slow; a spinning wheel and ‘Loading’ notification will display in the bottom right-hand corner of your map.
  1. As the movie plays through you can view the date and time of the highlighted hotspots. You can also move the slider bar to highlight different timeframes.
  1. When you are finished close the box using the ‘X’ button at the top right of the table.
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