With Europe within the grip of a heatwave and little rain, the scorched floor and dry vegetation is succumbing to fireside. Fires have now damaged out so far as the Arctic Circle, in Sweden. This animation reveals pictures from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-Three missions.
The broader view, which stretches from the west coast of Norway to central Sweden, was captured by Sentinel-Three on 17 July 2018. Right here, smoke will be seen billowing from a number of fires. The nearer view was captured on the identical day by Sentinel-2. Right here, flames and smoke from two of the fires will be seen clearly, together with smoke from different fires within the neighborhood.
The zoom-in from Sentinel-2 and the wider view from Sentinel-3 are additionally accessible for separate obtain.
The fires have led to the authorities evacuating some villages and interesting for assist from different nations, and considerations that the present report temperatures and drought are linked to local weather change.
There are mentioned to be round 50 fires now burning within the nation. By means of July there have been 3 times as many fires as there have been final yr.
Jonas Olsson from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute is reported to have mentioned, “It’s very, very dry in most of Sweden. The flows within the rivers and lakes are exceptionally low, besides within the very northern a part of the nation. We have now water shortages.
“Rainfall has solely been round a seventh of the traditional quantity, the bottom since record-keeping started within the late 19th century.”
Whereas the main focus is clearly on making an attempt to extinguish these fires, the Copernicus Sentinel missions supply a watch within the sky to determine the place fires have damaged out. That is particularly beneficial in areas which are sparsely populated.
Sentinel-2 carries a high-resolution multispectral imager and Sentinel-Three carries a collection of devices together with an ocean and land imaging instrument. The missions supply complementary views of Earth to assist monitor environmental change and occasions corresponding to these fires.
