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Reads like German to us!
Posted by WeekbyWeek on 04/05/06 at 11:26 PMI ran the page through Babelfish. It’s obviously not a perfect translation, but I don’t speak German so it’s the best I can do.
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SATELLITE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE WEEK
Conflagrations in Tasmanien
Tasmanien is considered as a dream goal to holiday-makers and biologists. At present however it can become uncomfortable in many places on the island: Numerous fires of partly enormous extents blaze on the Australian isle.
Already in January Tasmanien was afflicted by numerous shrub fires, which did not only burn in uninhabited areas, but also cities threatened. And the fire season continues: A current picture of the NASA satellite “Aqua” shows that there are still numerous conflagrations on the island.
“moderate resolution the Imaging Spectroradiometer” (“Modis”) on board the satellite shot the picture on Wednesday of this week. Several fires produce enormous smoke trails, which extend over dozens of kilometers and usually direction show the west.
Tasmanien, which is about as large as Bavaria, had to make bitter experiences with shrub fires in the past already. It came again and again to devastating fires. On the “black Friday” of the yearly 1967 67 humans died, when the tasmanische capital kind of main header was met of one of these fires. The fires are angefacht not rarely by strong hoists - Tasmanien is considered as one of the stormiest places of the world.
Shrub fires are released usually by thunderbolt or sometimes also by volcanism and fulfill an important function in nature. According to data of the US space agency NASA fall world-wide approximately one million square kilometer country per year natural fires to the victim. Humans are however responsible for by far more fires. The numbers are inaccurate, but NASA proceeds from 750.000 to 8.2 million square kilometers forest and green areas, which are purposefully abgefackelt world-wide per year - mostly for agricultural purposes or for prevention by uncontrolled natural fires.
mbe
The image text reads:
Fires in Tasmanien (red marks): The largest smoke trail, to see in the northwest of the island, is approximately 50 kilometers long.Posted by Matthew on 05/05/06 at 01:13 AMlast para of Matthew’s translation: “which are purposefully abgefackelt”
couldn’t put it any more succintly than that!
Posted by WeekbyWeek on 05/05/06 at 04:16 AMI think this is a stitch-up job. And I wonder who supplied the photo? Don’t think it was NASA. The red blobs have been clearly added - some also where there is no smoke emanating. Just showed the picture to a weather boffin mate and he says that the clouds are definitely moving in from the west, the smoke is going to the opposite direction to the wind!!
Embarassing - I wonder what lame-brain was behind this?
Posted by super Annoyed on 05/05/06 at 06:06 AMI think I can see my house . . .
:)Posted by Mr Goodbytes on 05/05/06 at 08:15 AM“I think this is a stitch-up job. And I wonder who supplied the photo? Don’t think it was NASA.”
The very same SA…
Hahahahaha,you are funny now!SA- you may not like it but:
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/erde/0,1518,k-6876,00.html
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NASA MODIS Satellite Image of smoke travelling to Tasmania on ...NASA MODIS Satellite Image of smoke travelling to Tasmania….
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwev/92157003/ - 22k
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MODIS WebsiteOn April 26, 2006, the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the Tasmania and captured this image, which showed numerous fires (marked in red) burning. ...
modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/ individual.php?db_date=2006-04-28
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MODIS WebsiteNASA Logo - Goddard Space Flight Center. + NASA Homepage ... Fires in Tasmania · April 28, 2006 · Eruption of Soufriere Hills Volcano · April 27, 2006 ...
modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/showall.php - 17k - 2 May 2006
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ScienceDaily: NASA Plays Key Role In Largest Environmental ...LBA is partly funded by NASA. Also, scores of projects that feed the Amazon ... and British scientists are spending summer in north-west Tasmania, ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/07/040728085302.htm
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ScienceDaily: NASA Finds Polluted Clouds Hold Less Moisture And ...A NASA study found some clouds that form on tiny haze particles are not cooling the ... (Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC) ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050104072650.htm
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Reality bites…
FrankPosted by Frank Strie on 05/05/06 at 11:46 AMOnly fools rush in Mr. Super Annoyed…..I suggest that your “boffin” mate stick to amateur fishing predictions, forest burning planning and the science of reading chicken livers. I am always amazed as to the barrage of negative/ludite comments that appear on TT (from the ususal suspects) when a powerful image like this appears. It must have been a slow day at FT/Govt Media Unit!
The image is REAL and is NOT doctored (unlike most stories in the mainstream Tasmanian media). It is indeed from NASA (ha). If you had any knowledge of remote sensing SA, you would know that fires can appear like these red blobs as a function of the Band (wavelength) filters used.
The image is a NASA MODIS (or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) image from the Aqua (EOS PM) satellite. Captured on April 26, 2006.
The technical details of the image(for those non lame-brains) are below:
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 04/26/2006
Resolutions:1km (154.5 KB)
500m (446.7 KB)
250m (1.3 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Credit:Jesse Allen, Earth ObservatoryThe image website is http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2006-04-28
For those too lazy/embarrased to go to the NASA website, the commentry is “...the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the Tasmania and captured this image, which showed numerous fires (marked in red) burning. Several of the fires are accompanied by long smoke plumes, which stretch generally westward. The island of Tasmania is an Australian state and is located 200 km south of the eastern portion of the continent, separated from it by Bass Strait. The capital and largest city of Tasmania is Hobart, located on the south-east coast of the island”
Given how easy and cheap it is to purchase satellite images for any day/time/location from any of dozens of suppliers from any of scores of satellites - I am amazed that no one has ever bothered to get these powerful images to expose the truth. Imagine what an image of Tassie must have looked like last week when 38 forest burnoffs were ignited on a single day!
I dont know if that is your house Mr. Goodbytes - perhaps its your workplace! Back to Remote Sensing 101 for you Mr. SA.
Posted by Nom De Plume on 05/05/06 at 09:38 PMDisbelief Super!!
Welcome to the real world of modern forest practices perhaps.
Discover the original photo on the NASA site. Check out the english NASA version
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/shownh.php3?img_id=13530
April 26 2006 now that doesn’t seem to be bush fire season. Could these be “regeneration” burns?
Posted by Jonathan Kilpatrick on 05/05/06 at 10:46 PMHeres the link to the secret and shadowy organisation only known as the “Anti Tasmania Hate the Good Old Boys Agency” that maliciously faked this clearly outrageous image in order to destroy the lives of innocent peace loving mothers, fathers, children and puppies of this faraway island.
Its absolutely disgusting to think they would go to the lengths of faking such disturbing images just to make Tasmania look like a lawless third world country.
The attempt by these hostile and evil international conspirators to pretend to show Tasmania as just another place of interest due to the enormous plumes of smoke and obvious pollution visible from space, caused by manmade infernos is just another example what kind of demented sickos we are up against.
They have nothing but their petty self-interest and mind-boggling greed to motivate them.
The fact that they didn’t make moral judgements other then to describe the scene is just plain devious and cunning.
I am with you all the way, Super Annoying. Clearly a stitch up job!
By the way, I really think you should change your name to Super Enlightened. Keep up the good fight. It’s worthy!
http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2006-04-28
Posted by super Disciple on 05/05/06 at 11:45 PMSA: Your weather boffin mate has a few things to learn.
The picture shows Tasmania straddled with cloud along the east coast, particularly in the south-east while the rest of the island remains relatively clear. This is a clear indication of onshore south-east to north-easterlies, not westerlies.
The direction of the smoke trails are therefore moving with the wind, not against it.
Posted by Lee Lacker on 06/05/06 at 03:05 AMSuper Annoyed’s comments to tasmaniantimes are as tiresomely frequent as they are utterly tiresome.
SA’s little replies are tacked onto nearly every article and yet he/her/it fails to actually subject him/her/itself to analysis by having the imagination to write an article for this website.
Super Annoyed’s piffling utterances are like that sticky little fly that keeps landing back onto the corner of the eye after being shooed away for the 50th time.
SA’s prattlings are to the tasmaniantimes family like that embarrassing, fat little bachelor uncle that nobody talks about, with the constant wet patch in his pants and the toxic body odour.
Give it a bone SA, and give the rest of us a rest from your drivel. You risk making an absolute fool of yourself.
Posted by Neil on 06/05/06 at 08:44 AMI posted an earlier mea culpa which hasnt made it through the web server. Here it is again - you got me gang.
I was wrong.
I do have my doubts about the validity of the red bits with no smoke, but this is clearly a reputable source.
I was wrong, wrong and more wrong. Thanks for the speedy correction everybody - I’ve dished it out and now I have to eat a big slice of humble pie….
Posted by super_Annoyed on 06/05/06 at 08:47 AMAlso, the wind direction can vary at differing altitudes.
It is not unusual to have low level clouds travelling one direction, and higher level clouds travelling in completely the opposite direction.
Hot air balloonists take advantage of this phenomenon to “steer” balloons as close to their intended destination as possible.
Posted by Tassie Smurf on 06/05/06 at 11:28 AMI was really only kidding around, Nom De Plume. If it’s a real photo, I’m impressed.
I was only trying to add a little levity.
It’s true I couldn’t really see my house, I was just joking about that.
But come on - someone must have giggled…?
Smiled?
Even a little bit?
:)
Posted by Mr Goodbytes on 06/05/06 at 12:03 PMAlso, does anyone have the resources to find other images like this of other dates like Nom De Plume suggests?
I seem to recall the Mercury recently ran an article on regeneration burns, so images from dates when they occured would be interesting.
By the way though, SA’s cynicism is pretty healthy in my opinion. It never hurts to question these things.
Posted by Mr Goobytes on 06/05/06 at 12:14 PMYes Mr Goodbytes I am still giggling about the entire episode and I agree that we should be able to laugh about it all. Well done Mr SA for having the good grace to admit your errors - please continue to contribute (I agree with Mr Goodbytes that we must encourage diversity of opinion). I apologise if my comments were a bit too harsh and no one is perfect (except politicians who cant say sorry).
With regards to images. You should be able to get an accurate record of burning dates from a number of sources including the burners themselves. Some local councils/fire authorities should be able to help you as well as they would have recorded incidents and complaints. I think that the Victorian Fire Authourity may have a specialist remote sensing unit who may be able to assist. Also the media (like articles on TT) may provide date assistance.
Without doing a websearch I know there are many companies from which you can order images (try google/yahoo). If you are not technically minded just tell them what you are looking for (something like the MODIS image as shown here). They should be able to provide you with a Swathe path (satellite flight trajectory) showing which images are available for which dates - they need to find a satellite which is passing over your area on the date you want. Its been about 10 years since I last ordered an image from a company in Canberra - then it cost about $27 per hardcopy image. I suspect that the ordering process has now largely been automated via the web. Give it a go. Enjoy
Posted by Nom de Plune on 06/05/06 at 08:12 PMAaghh - my secret is out - how did Neil know that I am in fact his fat and embarrasing batchelor uncle with the family curse of incontinence and unfortunate body odour? I do enjoy Neil’s posts and visceral prose. I sense his incandescent rage at the world and, though I shade my eyes, he is entitled to a view.
Yep, I was wrong about this ‘un. In fact, I do enjoy being wrong as the truth of the matter has been confirmed, and there is nothing as beautiful as truth.
Posted by super Annoyed on 07/05/06 at 01:27 AMIn a flame otherwise composed entirely of empty posturing with no attempt at connection with reality, Neil writes “SA’s little replies are tacked onto nearly every article and yet he/her/it fails to actually subject him/her/itself to analysis by having the imagination to write an article for this website.”
In fact SuperAnnoyed has written at least one article for this site, and a well-considered and sensible one it was too (http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php/weblog/comments/management-and-incumbency/)
In any case all offerings that appear on this site, whether labelled as “article” or as “comment”, are open to the same level of analysis. I have seen “comments” that were more substantive than many of the “articles”, and “articles” that were basically just overstretched disjointed “comments”. There is not such a clearcut division between the two.
Posted by Dr Kevin Bonham on 07/05/06 at 04:14 AMAt the risk of looking extra foolish, why does FT even DO forestry burns?
What does it actually do for them?
Is it just a speedy way to get trees growing back on the sites they burn, or is it just to remove all the rubbish left behind?
Posted by Mr Goodbytes on 07/05/06 at 04:52 AM
