[Acknowledgements – SPOT Quicklook images are provided by the Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing at the National University of Singapore (http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/crisp.html). Copyright for SPOT data is held by Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, France. Maps 2 and 3 and Image 6 are taken from the Meteorological Service, Singapore, website http://www.gov.sg/metsin/]
Sumatra has been overcast with very few fires detected since the short Riau-North Sumatra haze event ended on 11 July 2001. By contrast, dry weather has affected much of Kalimantan, particularly the southeast, since mid-July.
Fires were first detected in the Mega Rice Scheme area of Central Kalimantan Province on 13 July. As is usual in these drained peatland areas, the fires start close by drainage-irrigation canals where the watertable level has been reduced and the peat has dried out sufficiently to burn. SPOT Quicklook Image 1 shows the location of the initial fire which was not detectable by NOAA.
Image 1. SPOT – 13 July 2001 Map 1. Location of image
Dark red areas indicate remaining peat swamp forest either side of the Sungai Sebangau. Canals dug to implement the Mega Rice Scheme show as straight lines.
By 25 July the fires had spread and were sufficiently well developed to be detected by NOAA (Map 2).
Map 2. Hot spots (red dots) detected on 25 July 2001
These peat fires continued to burn day and night through early August and were detected daily by all NOAA satellite passes. By 14 August the first significant smoke haze was reported from these Central Kalimantan fires (Map 3).
The development of the peat fires and smoke haze is shown in the sequence of SPOT Quicklook images numbered 2-5, each of which covers an area of approximately 60 km x 60 km. Part of the Mega Rice Scheme is visible with Sungai Sebangau on the left, Sungai Kahayan in the middle and Sungai Kapuas on the right. The SPOT 4 image of 15 August shows vegetation in approximately true colours (peat swamp forest is dark green). Surface winds are carrying the smoke haze north-northwestwards towards Palangkaraya situated near the top left corner of the images.
Image 2. 15 August 2001 Image 3. 19 August 2001
Image 4. 22 August 2001 Image 5. 24 August 2001
Night-time NOAA images are useful in identifying problem fires that are out of control and burning night and day. The image below shows that nearly all the fires (black dots) burning during the night of 29/30 August were in the Mega Rice Scheme peatlands of Central Kalimantan. Many other fires besides those described above have been detected during the day throughout August, particularly in West Kalimantan and to a lesser extent in East Kalimantan. The West Kalimantan fires have been transitory and associated with smallholder agriculture in dryland areas (mineral soils). These fires have not produced the conspicuous smoke plumes associated with the peatland fires in the derelict Mega Rice Scheme near Banjarmasin.
Image 6. NOAA12 30 August 2001 04:36 WIB
