Student researcher

Mercy Ndalila Research Leader

A key strategy of this project is to protect people from bushfires by assessing the use of planned burns to reduce fuel loads. This study also analyse the evolution of the smoke plume and its injection into the atmosphere to understand the conditions of pyrocumulus ‘blow up’. Furthermore, it will also compare smoke emissions from key vegetation types to establish patterns of smoke pollution under a range of weather conditions. This data can be used to protect the health of surrounding communities.

This project will provide the Tasmania fire agency with information on behaviour and effects of extreme fires, which are becoming a more common occurrence in Australia and on management of natural landscapes with regard to smoke pollution from extreme fires that will improve planned burning guidelines near wildland-urban interface. These findings will enable protection of health of communities living in/adjacent to fire-prone areas by providing an early warning (or real time and near real time) fire alert.

Smoke Plume Injection into the Atmosphere and Subsequent Pyrocumulus 'Blow-Up'
18 Aug 2015
Fire influences climates through emission of gas and particles into the atmosphere.Advances in geospatial...
Remote sensing of fire severity in the 2013 Dunalley fire, Tasmania
29 Jun 2017
Extreme fire which burnt ca. 25,000 haHigh smoke plume injection, carrying emissions to upper atmosphereModel...
Geographic patterns of fire severity following an extreme eucalyptus forest fire in Southern Australia
19 Sep 2018
How did fire severity and intensity vary across the landscape? How did satellite-based measures of fire...
AFAC19 poster
27 Aug 2019
January 2013 fire season was among the most significant seasons in Tasmanian history.
21 Dec 2020
Key findings: Global models can produce reliable smoke emission estimates from eucalyptus forest fires