A new online module will provide information about grassland curing — the rate that grass dries out — and how the CFA uses it for fire analysis.
The course has been launched during a season with high risk of grassfires, after significant rainfall last year led to exceptional grass growth across the state.
Barmah resident and CFA volunteer John Jackson, who has been part of the program for 10 years, said he was excited about its potential.
“I’ve gone through the new course and it’s excellent,” Mr Jackson said.
“It teaches you what you need to become an observer.
“You walk out to a point that you’ve set, have a look at the grass, then use some helpful tools to work out the curing rate.”
CFA remote sensing analyst Danielle Wright said those ground observations were combined with satellite images to produce a map of Victoria showing how dry the grass is across the state.
“Green grass is zero per cent cured, while grass that is totally dried out is 100 per cent cured, and those numbers can help calculate the grassland fire danger index,” Ms Wright said.
“It’s very important for identifying fire danger ratings, and feeds into fire behaviour modelling.”
She said observers were crucial, as the satellite model could sometimes over-estimate or under-estimate curing.
“A paddock might have tall, dry grass but after some heavy rainfall there could be green shoots coming through which wouldn’t affect fire behaviour, but would still be picked up by the satellite,” Ms Wright explained.
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