Sentinel Homepage

1 May 2013    - Sentinel Under maintenance

Sentinel will be undergoing maintenance between 10am to 12pm (AEST) Wednesday 1 May 2013.
Access to the Sentinel website will be unavailable during this time.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

09 Apr 2013    Change to MODIS Mosaic default landing image

The satellite derived default landing image of the Australian continent,
known as the MODIS Mosaic that displays hotspots (seen when a user first
logs in to Sentinel) will now be changed to display the 250k topographic
image as the default landing page image. By clicking the applicable
check box (MODIS Mosaic), it can revert back to the previous image.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

13 Feb 2013   Sentinel Hotspots - NOAA issue update

The issue that was impacting the availability of Hotspots - NOAA has been resolved.
We apologise for any inconvenience.

7 Jan 2013   System Maintenance

8 Feb 2013   Sentinel Hotspots - NOAA issue update

The hardware that produces hotspots from the NOAA satellites remains offline.
Sentinel Hospots draws data from a number of Earth-observation satellites, and continues to function normally in all other respects.
We apologise for any inconvenience.

7 Jan 2013   System Maintenance

7 Jan 2013   Sentinel Hotspots - NOAA issue

Hotspots - NOAA is currently offline until futher notice due to a hardware failure
We apologise for any inconvenience.

7 Jan 2013   System Maintenance

Some Backgrounds will be unavaliable for 3 hours from 11am.
The display of Hotspots will not be impacted.
We apologise for any inconvenience.

19th Oct 2012   Sentinel performance issue - RESOLVED

17th Oct 2012   Sentinel performance issue

We are currently experiencing performance problems with the Sentinel website we are working to resolve this issue
We apologise for any inconvenience.

5th May 2012   Geoscience Australia maintenance scheduled

Due to backend database maintenance, the historical (older than 72 hours) hotspot data may not be available from approximately 09:00 (9am) until 18:00 (6pm) AEST Saturday 5th May 2012).
We apologise for any inconvenience - normal current data will continue to be available.

27th-28th April 2012   Geoscience Australia maintenance scheduled

Due to backend database maintenance, the historical (older than 72 hours) hotspot data may not be available from approximately 17:00 (5pm) AEST Friday 27th April until 17:00 (5pm) AEST Saturday 28th April 2012).
We apologise for any inconvenience - normal current data will continue to be available.

16th April 2012   Sentinel maintenance

Work is currently in progress on the Sentinel servers, this may cause some less than optimal service delivery of certain features. This maintenance window will end midnight 19th April 2012. We apologise for any inconvenience.

31st March 2012   Geoscience Australia maintenance scheduled

Due to backend database maintenance, the historical (older than 72 hours) hotspot data may not be available from approximately 10:00 (10am) AEST until 18:00 (6pm) AEST Saturday 31st March 2012).
We apologise for any inconvenience - normal current data will continue to be available.

27th March 2012   Geoscience Australia website maintenance scheduled 6pm-10pm

The Geoscience Australia website www.ga.gov.au will be offline today 27th March 2012 between 6pm-10pm for maintenance. This will not effect Sentinel however to access Sentinel directly please use the following website. sentinel.ga.gov.au

27th March 2012   Geoscience Australia website maintenance scheduled 6pm-10pm

The Geoscience Australia website www.ga.gov.au will be offline today 27th March 2012 between 6pm-10pm for maintenance. This will not effect Sentinel however to access Sentinel directly please use the following website. sentinel.ga.gov.au

1st March 2012   Terra-MODIS satellite available
25th February 2012   Terra-MODIS satellite unavailable

The Terra-MODIS satellite is currently offline with data transmission problems. This results in MODIS hotspots being updated at approximately half the usual frequency. Hotspots from other satellites are unaffected. This notice will be updated with the status of the hotspot service as news comes to hand.

18th February 2012   Sentinel updated Hotspots now available
17th February 2012   Sentinel new Hotspots unavailable

A communications link failure is currently preventing updates to the Sentinel. The fault is being investigated and rectified by the carrier.

30th October 2011   Sentinel Historical Data now available

29th October 2011 09:00-17:00(AEDT)   Sentinel Historical Data unavailable

Between 09:00 and 17:00(AEDT) Saturday 29th October 2011, there will be an outage that will affect access to the historical hotspot layers (ModisByDate and AvhrrByDate) and some "Printable Background" layers. All other layers will remain functional and currrent.

Thankyou

15th October 2011 18:00(AEDT)   Sentinel Service Normal Operation

Thankyou - The Sentinel service is now available as normal. Information is now fully current.

14th-15th October 2011   Sentinel Service Interuption

Between Friday 14th October 2011 from 7pm (19:00 AEDT) until Saturday 15th October 2011 9pm (21:00 AEDT) there will be an outage of the Sentinel hotspot service to permit essential building maintenance at Geoscience Australia.
Alternative services are available at:
         Landgate FireWatch
         Northern Territory FireNorth

17 February 2011 22:00-01:00 AEDT   Possible Service Interuption

Due to network changes at our gateway provider there may be an outage of approximately 30 mins between 22:00 (10pm) and 01:00 (1am) on Thursday night 17th February 2011.

1 July 2010   TERRA accuracy restored

Due to a clock error on the satellite, Hotspot data derived from the MODIS instrument aboard the TERRA satellite (morning and evening passes only) may have an increased location error of up to 10km. This fault affects data from 10am, 1st July, was corrected 10am, 2nd July (AEST).

29 May 2010   Sentinel unavailable - Geoscience Australia Internet Gateway Maintenance
Sentinel will be unavailabe for periods between 8:00am and 9:00pm (AEST) on Saturday 29th May due to an upgrade of the Geoscience Australia Internet Gateway. Service will be restored as soon as possible within this window.
Thankyou for your understanding.

6 Feb 2010   Sentinel Unavailable Saturday 14:00 - 18:00(AEDT)
The Sentinel system and related services will be unavailable between 14:00(2pm) - 18:00(6pm) Saturday due to network maintenance.
Conditions and events around Australia shall be monitored and the maintenance delayed if necessary. 23 Dec 2009   TERRA satellite Normal operation

TERRA (morning) data now being received normally.

22 Dec 2009   TERRA Science Formatter Error

The MODIS satellite has sufferred an instrument anomaly (SFE) affecting data broadcast. There will be no Hotspot detections this morning or evening. The fault is scheduled to be fixed in the early hours of tomorrow morning (AEDT).

Afternoon/Early morning data (AQUA) continue normally.

10 Nov 2009 - 15:00   Communications link restored

The link has been restored this afternoon, and all Sentinel data is now synchronised.

A communications link failure in Alice Springs is curently preventing updates to the Sentinel. The fault is being investigated and rectified by the carrier. Normal Sentinel updates (including the backlog) will be made available as soon as possible.

3 Mar 2009   No data for Victoria today
Due cloud cover, there is no data over Victoria today.

8th Feb 2009   Overviews of Current Bushfire Hotspots
Please use the Current Overview link (at left) to get a quick overview of current situations.
This can assist with permitting more visitors to rapidly access the site.

8th Feb 2009 - This afternoon's AQUA pass was affected by a cloud band and heavy smoke over the southern half of Victoria.

24th Dec 2008   TERRA satellite normal operation
The Flight Operations Team (FOT) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center successfully commanded Terra back to nominal science operations today. After the Science Formatter Equipment (SFE)-A was verified to be on, recording of science data to the Solid State Recorder was enabled and the Direct Broadcast mode was activated.

21st Dec 2008   TERRA satellite Instrument anomaly

We have been advised that the TERRA satellite suffered an instrument anomaly at 20-Dec-2008 04:49 (UTC) [15:49 AEDT]. All imaging from this satellite has been suspended at this time. We will advise when we know more.

Note: This anomaly will affect the availability of morning and evening overpass data. As the AQUA satellite continues to function normally, data for afternoon and pre-dawn overpasses will be unaffected.

14th June 2008   TERRA directbroadcast restored

At 14:30UTC (00:30AEST on the 14th June 2008), the TERRA satellite DB communications was successfully restored by NASA using the 'B' side modulator. TERRA-MODIS data has been taken since orbit 45147 at 14:48UTC and the quality appears good. Hotspots are being detected by both satellites normally.

2nd June 2008   TERRA directbroadcast suspended
As TERRA (morning satellite) direct broadcast has been suspended, Sentinel is unable to determine Hotspots from the morning TERRA passes. The afternoon satellite (AQUA) remains fully operational, and Hotspots will be detected for the afternoon (day) and early morning (night) passes.
"At 06:44:31 GMT on day 154 the NASA FOT (Flight Operations Team) turned off the Terra Direct Access System (DAS) Modulator side 1 (DASM-1) due to excessively low voltage."
This has been done to protect the satellite until the cause of the fault is accessed, and recovery procedures determined.
MODIS data from the afternoon satellite (AQUA) continues to be available

17th December 2007   New processing system commissioned in Alice Springs
The processing system at our Ground Station in Alice Springs has recently been upgraded. This significantly reduces the time required to post Hotspots data to the Sentinel web site.
Please note that as a result of this change users of "Hotspot text files" on the FTP service will notice a change in name format.

SPECIAL NOTICE - 13th December 2007
Historical Sentinel data is now again available.

2nd December 2007
Due to system problems, the access to historical Sentinel data has been temporarily suspended. All data for the most recent three days remains valid, as do alternate data formats.

16th November 2007
Terra MODIS was returned to service at 2007-11-16 01:15 UTC (Fri 12:15 pm) just prior to the Central Australian pass. Sentinel data was unavailable for two passes this morning, one over New Zealand and one over Eastern Australia.

Due to a "Single Event Upset" which occurred onboard the satellite at 2007-11-15 18:13 UTC (5:13 am Fri 16th Nov AEDT), the MODIS instrument onboard TERRA has been temporarily turned off. Until the instrument operation is restored, Sentinel will determine Hotspots from MODIS onboard the AQUA satellite only (afternoon and early morning timeslots).

14th September 2007
10:30 am - System communication now restored.
Due to network issues, current Sentinel updates are unavailable. We are working to restore full operation as soon as possible.

17th August 2007
MODIS Terra direct broadcast is now operational
Following a temporary failure on 3 August, the direct broadcast function of the MODIS sensor on Terra was successfully returned its normal operational capacity on 17 August.
This was achieved using the prime side of the X-band system, meaning there is still full redundancy on the B-side should the prime side malfunction permanently in the future.
This returns the ACRES Sentinel Bushfire service and ACRES Online MODIS products to their full complement of MODIS data availability.

3rd August 2007
MODIS Terra Direct Broadcast Failure
Direct reception of data from the Terra satellite by Geoscience Australia has been interrupted by the failure of the X-band Solid State Power Amplifier on board the spacecraft. NASA engineers estimate it may take up to 2 weeks to return to direct broadcast operation via backup equipment.
Geoscience Australia downlinks MODIS data daily from the Terra and Aqua satellites. We have received no instrument data from Terra since orbit 40559 at 13:47:22 UTC 3 August 2007.
The equipment failure has impacted on delivery of MODIS Terra hotspot information available on the Sentinel Bushfire Web service and ACRES MODIS Online imagery service. MODIS data from the afternoon overpass satellite AQUA is unaffected, and continues to give continental coverage in both the afternoon (~14:30 local time) and early morning (~02:30 local time). Hotspot data is also collected from the NOAA-17 and NOAA-18 satellites. There is no interruption to direct reception of MODIS data from the Aqua spacecraft.

2nd July 2007
Sentinel now supports both the KML data format, for use with systems like Google Earth, and GPX format data files to ease the transfer of data to GPS based systems.
Please see the relevant links on the left panel.

14th July 2007
With this site we now add NOAA-17 and NOAA-18 night time passes to the satellites being used to detect hotspots.
The background layers have now also been rearranged to permit usage of data from alternate servers. Please note that layers from alternate servers may not be included in PDFs (prints) which you create on Sentinel.
Hotspot layer names have also been changed to clearly identify the data source. Old layer names will continue to be available on the WMS/WFS services for n interim period.

18th January 2007
Large areas of cloud have been obscuring northern and eastern Australia over the last few days. The sensors on the satellites used for hotspot detection cannot observe hotspots under cloud. This has lead to a reduced number of reported hotspots in eastern Australia.

9th December 2006
New static overview images now available. See Current Overview. These images are updated after every satellite overpass.

8th December 2006
Due to the current situation in Victoria, the Sentinel web site has been experiencing unprecedented loads.
To maintain system response, it has been necessary to restrict access to some layers including the topographical 250k raster map.
These layers will be re-enabled when system load permits.

23rd August 2006

At around 01:10 am on the 23rd August 2006, the AQUA satellite detected a large linear fire 'feature' in northwest Queensland. This is not a real fire, but an example of an anomaly - in this case, the satellite has possibly detected the plume from its own retro-rockets during an orbit correction manoeuvre.

Click for larger view

10th July 2006
Mapping backend has been updated. This is to improve WFS services.

7th/10th April 2006
There may be major interruptions to the ACRES SENTINEL, Digital Catalogue and other Internet services from 16:00 on Friday 7th until 08:30 Monday 10th April 2006 to permit external network maintenance. An alternate high speed link will be used to bypass the maintenance site which should result in no loss of service.

16th March 2006
WFS & WMS layer names changed to be more compatible (no spaces).

21st February 2006
Due to backend database maintenance, the historical (older than 72 hours) hotspot data may not be available from approximately 18:00 until 23:00 this evening (21st Feb 2006).
We apologise for any inconvience - normal current data will continue to be available.

14th December 2005
The Sentinel bushfire monitoring system is now hosted by Geoscience Australia after nearly three years as an R&D demonstrator project, providing a very valuable service to the fire management community.

The system was jointly developed by the CSIRO Land and Water, Geoscience Australia and Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation (DIGO) following the severe bushfire season of 2001-02. CSIRO was operating the Sentinel web site with hotspot data provided by Geoscience Australia.s remote sensing data acquisition facilities in Alice Springs.

Early in 2005, Geoscience Australia decided to host the operational Sentinel system as a logical extension to its current remote sensing activities. Both CSIRO and Geoscience Australia Sentinel services will run in parallel until January 2006.