Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 29 Oct 09;
Indonesia installed a new system to monitor hotspots across the country’s forests to help avert rampant land and forest fires as efforts to combat the climate change.
Under the so-called Indofire system, hotspot data could be transferred directly to forest fighters in less than one hour to allow them to take action to stop the fires.
The system, which uses satellite-based fire detection of the US’ latest environmental sensor MODIS (Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer), has the capability to capture images in more detail with a resolution of 250 kilometers.
The existing fire detection satellite of the National Ocean Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) could only cover hotspots with a resolution of one kilometer.
Data from the MODIS would be processed at receiving stations in Rumpin in West Java and Pare Pare in Sulawesi before being transferred it to web servers at the Forestry Ministry and National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Lapan).
“With the system, we could get more accurate data of the hotspots in almost real time,” said Noor Hidayat, director for forest fire control at the forestry ministry, on Thursday.
He said that the hotspot data would be published in the Indofire website jointly launched by Indonesian and Australian governments on Thursday.
“It would also allow our forest fighters to respond it as fast as possible to minimize the spread of the fires,” he said.
The A$1.5 million project is part of the Indonesia-Australia Forest Carbon Partnership signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Jakarta in 2008.
Under the partnership, the Australian government has promised to provide A$40 million in grants to prepare mechanisms in implementing the emissions reductions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).
Regional Director of the Western Australian Government Martin Newbery said that data of hotspots would immediately be available for fighting fires.
“It could be accessed freely by the government, industry and public.”
Data of the daily fire hotspots could be accessed at www.lapan.go.id/indofire and http://indofire.dephut.go.id.
