Investigating the Radiative Impacts of the 2019-20 Australian Bushfires through Improved Passive Satellite Retrieval Techniques

The 2019-20 megafires across south-east Australia produced extremely thick smoke plumes that caused poor air quality and reduced the amount of energy from the Sun that reached the ground. The smoke can be observed from space using satellites, but these plumes were not accurately assessed. In this thesis, satellite data was used to improve the identification of smoke plumes, the estimation of their extent and thickness, and the estimation of solar energy reaching the surface. This work will contribute to improving air quality modelling, weather forecasts and estimating solar input for the renewable energy sector.