February
7, 2013
On the afternoon of January 14, 2013, a fierce bushfire swept
across the campus of Siding
Spring Observatory, a
world-class astronomy facility on a ridge in Australia’s Warrumbungle National
Park. The observatory is home to some of the most powerful sky-mapping
telescopes in the world.
Ten
years earlier, a
brush fire devastated one of Australia’s other top observatories, so the staff
of Siding Spring feared that history was repeating itself. As the fire reached
the observatory’s campus, cameras and telescopes sent back disturbing
images of
flames lapping at the doorsteps of buildings and smoke billowing overhead.
By nightfall on January 14, the situation looked dire to the
scientists and staff who had evacuated and were left to monitor the situation
online. A handful of buildings on the campus were on fire. At one point, a
thermometer on campus recorded a spike in air temperatures to 100 degrees
Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit).
The next day, however, brought relief. The fire subsided, and
only three buildings at Siding Spring—including theresidence of a Siding Spring astronomer—were
destroyed. Aside from minor smoke damage, the major telescopes were fine.
The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and
Reflection Radiometer (ASTER)
on NASA’s Terra satellite offers a unique perspective
on how close the observatory came to destruction. The satellite acquired these
false-color views of the burn scar on February 4, 2013, three weeks after the
fire. The images combine measurements from both the visible and the infrared
portions of the electromagnetic
spectrum; unburned
forest vegetation appears dark red, unburned grasslands are pink, and burned
vegetation is brown. The observatory’s buildings and telescope domes are white.
The fire burned a large swath of Warrumbungle National Park severely—except for
a small patch of unburned forest around and just north of the observatory.
Years of preparation, combined with the heroic efforts of 30
firefighters, explain why only that small patch of forest survived. A decade
earlier, after fire devastated Mount Stromlo Observatory, Siding Spring took
steps to strengthen its defenses against bushfire. Mesh nets were installed
over many of the observatory’s structures to repel flying embers. And
controlled fires were occasionally set around the observatory grounds to rid
the forests of underbrush.
Amanda Bauer, an Australian Astronomical Observatory fellow who
wrote about the fire and its aftermath on a blog (Astropixie) summed
up the
sentiments of the staff: “[I was] overjoyed that the measures taken to save
Siding Spring Observatory against the fire (when combined with a bit of luck)
were enough in this case!”
· References
· Astropixie (2013, Jan. 13 - Feb. 1) Siding
Spring Observatory Fire. Accessed
Feb. 5, 2013.
· Australian Geographic (2013, Jan. 16) Bushfire
hits Australia’s largest observatory. Accessed Feb. 5, 2013.
· Gizmodo (2013, Jan. 17) How
The Fire Fight For Australia’s Greatest Observatory Was Won. Accessed Feb. 5, 2013.
· Physics World (2013, Jan. 16) Fires
Ravage Siding Spring Observatory. Accessed
Feb. 5, 2013.
· Sky & Telescope (2013, Jan. 13) Fire
Damages Siding Spring Observatory. Accessed
Feb. 5, 2013.
· Sydney Morning Herald (2013, Jan. 14) ‘It
looked like an atom bomb’: telescope saved but ‘dangerous’ bushfire destroys
homes. Accessed Feb.
5, 2013.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using data from
NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./JapanASTER Science Team. Caption by Adam Voiland.
Instrument:
Terra - ASTER
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