Research staff

Dr Stefan Maier
Principal Research Fellow (RS)
Phone: (08) 8946 7631
Email: stefan.maier@cdu.edu.au

Project: Development of 'top down' methodologies for estimating key emissions (CO, particulates) from savanna burning using satellite remote sensing technologies

 

 

 

Stefan Maier is our most recent staff member: "I obtained my PhD at the Technical University in Munich. The title was "Modelling the Radiative Transfer in Leaves in the 300nm to 2.5um Region taking into Consideration Chlorophyll Fluorescence - The Leaf Model SLOPE ". After my PhD I worked as Post-Doc at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. Five years ago I came to Perth to work as a Senior Research Officer for the WA Government at Landgate's (former DOLA) Satellite Remote Sensing Section (SRSS). Since the beginning of this year I was managing SRSS."

Across northern Australia contemporary savanna burning regimes have deleterious impacts on biodiversity, soil and production values, and contribute significantly to Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

The overall aim of Stefan's CDU project is to refine current emissions assessment methodologies for rapid appraisal. More specifically the project will develop 'top down' methodologies for estimating key emissions (CO, particulates) from savanna burning using satellite remote sensing technologies.

This will be done by investigating three different approaches. The first approach is based on mapping extend of burnt areas, fuel load and fuel condition before the fire as well as burn efficiency after the fire. The second approach will utilise measurements of instantaneous radiative energy release by fires (i.e. fire radiative power). There are indications that at the pixel level instantaneous emissions are highly correlated with instantaneous radiative energy release.

The third approach will use measurements of CO and particulate concentrations in the atmosphere in combination with atmospheric transport modelling. It is anticipated that depending on the spatial scale a combination of these methodologies is required to provide adequate greenhouse gas emission estimates.

 

Most Recent Publications

 

Maier, S. W. (accepted).

Fire induced changes in surface reflectance on the Australian continent as measured with MODIS. International Journal of Remote Sensing.

Russell-Smith, J., Murphy, B. P., Meyer, M. C. P., Cook, G. D., Maier, S. W., Edwards, A. C., Schatz, J., Brocklehurst, P. (2009).

Savanna burning, greenhouse emissions, and market-based opportunities for sustainable fire management in northern Australia. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 18, 1-18.

 

Smith, R. G. C., Adams, M., Maier, S. W., Kristina, A., Maling, I. (2007).

Estimating the area of stubble burning from the number of active fires detected by satellite. Remote Sensing of Environment, 109, 95-106.

 

Walz, Y., Maier, S. W., Dech, S. W., Conrad, Ch., Colditz, R. R. (2007).

Classification of burn severity using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS): A case study in the Jarrah-Marri forest of southwest Western Australia.  Journal of Geophysical Research, 112, G02002.

 

Günther, K. P., Maier, S. W. (2007).

AVHRR compatible vegetation index derived from MERIS data. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 28, 693-708.