Unexpected wind shifts, ember attacks, fire storms and fire vortices. They're some of the unpredictable and extreme components that can transform a bushfire from bad to deadly.
As bushfires become increasingly ferocious in Australia, aggravated by climate change, major fire and research bodies from across the country are turning to a well-known piece of technology that they say could be a "life-saving" tool in fire management.
It's a mobile Doppler radar, similar to those used by meteorologists to monitor rainfall.
But instead of picking up on moisture, it uses ash particles, embers and insects to generate a three-dimensional picture of the bushfire smoke plume, giving a view inside the fire like never before.
"I think this has the potential to save lives," Monash University radar expert Peter May said.
"Tragically, we've seen examples where firefighters have been killed by damaging winds and vortices generated by fires where equipment has been flipped over and so forth.
"This kind of technology gives us early warning of that hazard."
Dr May was one of the researchers running "proof of concept" trials of the radar during a number of controlled burns, which he deemed a success.
He said the radar, which was placed at the scene of a fire, could feed back crucial real-time information about how a fire was behaving.
He said, most significantly, this could provide early warning about some of the most dangerous components of a fire, such as unexpected winds, ember transport, and the development of thunderstorms.
"The radar gives you all kinds of information about the fire," Dr May said.
"You can measure the winds around the fire, you can measure the flow into the fire, how quickly the smoke plume is rising, the material that's inside the smoke plume, and how it's evolving.
"So it gives you new insight into what's going on inside the fire."
Some of these characteristics are already observed with current fire management tools, such as satellite, portable observation sites, fixed Doppler radars, and aircraft.
But Dr May said they did not always give the full picture and could be impacted by smoke, cloud, or simply the time of day.
Interest from major fire and research organisations
Western Australia's south-west was chosen as the site to test the technology because of the size and scale of burns conducted.
Dr May said it was the first time the radar had been tested for practical use in fire management, expanding on early research out of Queensland and the United States.
The trials have attracted the interest and support of major fire and research agencies from across the country which met this week to unpack its results.
This included the Bureau of Meteorology, WA and NSW state-based fire and conservation departments, Natural Hazards Research Australia, AFAC, CSIRO, University of Queensland, Monash, Country Fire Authority, and the Rural Fire Service.
Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA chief superintendent Stuart Wade said the need for new tools was becoming increasingly important.
"Certainly with the drying climate that we have the fires are lasting longer, they're more ferocious, they're more impactful on the communities," he said.
"Any tool, any information that allows us to make those critical decisions is very exciting."
Mr Wade said the radar had the potential to change the outcome of certain fires.
"I think that any information that is gathered by radar can contribute to the existing suite of information that we have," he said.
"And if this allows incident controllers, such as myself, to make key decisions that provide for early warnings not only for the community but also for the responders on the fireground and make it a safer place to be, then that's a key thing."
Radar data could improve modelling of future fires
Mika Pearce, from the Bureau of Meteorology, said it could also provide crucial data to improve their modelling.
"If we're going to predict fires accurately and understand where they're going to spread, how they're going to spread, and what the fire behaviour is going to look like and how they're going to impact people and communities, then we need to understand what's happening in three dimensions," Dr Pearce said.
Those involved hope the technology could be put to use in real-life firegrounds within a couple of years.
But Dr Peace said there was still more work to do to further test its operational use.
"One of the things we'd like to do relatively soon is to move from looking at prescribed burns to a wildfire because, obviously, the deployment of the radar at a prescribed burn is different to a wildfire," she said.
Dr May said software and hardware would also need to be developed to make the radar fit for purpose.
