Calls for Australia to develop its own satellite capabilities to track bushfires

The NSW government is urging the federal government to bolster national security by developing Australia’s own satellite capabilities.

Satellite image looking over Yamba in northern NSW as bushfires consume the area.

The NSW government is urging the federal government to bolster national security by developing Australia’s own satellite capabilities, after the Black Summer bushfires highlighted the nation’s dependence on foreign powers to provide vital data.

A submission from the NSW Treasury to a parliamentary inquiry into developing Australia’s space industry has highlighted the need for the country to develop a sovereign space program.

“While we were able to use the European Union’s Copernicus Rapid Mapping emergency satellite service to manage the fires in 2019, Australia should consider investing in owning that capability and data ourselves,” the submission says. “Relying on other nations to provide critical parts of this capability, such as satellite development, increases Australia’s vulnerability.

“The devastating 2019 bushfires demonstrated the potential advantages of Australian-managed and owned satellites. The nature of bushfires makes them hard to control, respond to and mitigate, and so responses need to be immediate.”

The Bureau of Meteorology’s submission says Earth observation data used for forecasting as well as monitoring weather during bushfires comes from more than 30 satellites owned by China, Japan, the US, Europe and South Korea. “Developing a sovereign Australian EO satellite capability would assist in guaranteeing long-term access to meteorological observations from space and reduce the risk of losing free and open access to critical satellite data streams required for weather forecasting.”