Fig. 1: Area and intensity of the Black Summer fires in southeast Australia.

a Map of areas burnt (red) between September 2019 and February 2020 (spring and summer), based on MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data. The term southeast Australia is used in this study to represent the combined states of New South Wales (NSW), Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Victoria. b Monthly total Fire Radiative Power (FRP) in southeast Australia derived from MODIS observations made from the Terra and Aqua satellites (Methods)125,126 shown for September 2019 to February 2020 (red), and compared with the monthly mean total FRP (dark grey) and monthly maxima total FRP (light grey) over the same spring and summer interval from September 2003 to February 2019. See also Supplementary Fig. 1 for daily FRP.