MalaysiaGIS.com

Source: The Star

This hook-up with the highly sensitive satellite will, to a large extent, help ensure that forest fires across the Indonesian border of Kalimantan can be detected and checked from spreading into the state.

This linkage with the satellite will complement the state’s two other existing linkages with American satellites that are hovering over Borneo Island, said Sarawak Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) enforcement chief Dania Goyog.

"The satellites have different orbits. They circle the globe at different times. This means that they will pass Borneo Island at different intervals.

"So now we have the benefit of receiving images taken at different times of the day," he said in an interview.

"The Chinese satellite can detect wildfires as small as half a square kilometre in size. Previously, we could only detect hotspots that are about one square kilometre.

"There is an enormous advantage in being able to detect smaller fires. We can take the necessary action to stop them from spreading and becoming bigger.

"If these fires are on the Kalimantan side near Sarawak, we can detect them and ask the authorities there to put them out," he stressed.

Goyog said some 26 major hotspots were detected in Kalimantan over the weekend.

The NREB is keeping a constant vigil to ensure the fires do not spread into Sarawak territory, he said, adding that the main concern now is the transboundary smoke which may be carried into the state.

The air quality statewide yesterday was good.