The Iberian Peninsula is suffocating under a dense blanket of smoke, as shown in new images captured by the Copernicus Earth observation program satellites, managed by the European Space Agency and the European Commission. The orbiting ‘Sentinels’ provide a unique vantage point to monitor the wildfires that have for days ravaged vast areas of northwestern Spain and northern Portugal.
The European Union’s activated Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service is primarily utilizing very high-resolution satellite imagery to support crisis management. In addition, the Copernicus Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-2 satellites are delivering a broader perspective to track large-scale fire activity and its impact across the entire region.
One image acquired by Sentinel-3 on August 17th shows an overview of France, Spain, and Portugal dominated by smoke billowing from the fires in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. Dense smoke plumes, driven by winds, are visible moving north and east, merging with cloud systems over the Atlantic and covering large portions of the Bay of Biscay. Some of this northbound smoke is also being pushed back toward Spain’s Mediterranean coast.
Conversely, Sentinel-2 provided a false-color image using its shortwave infrared channel to highlight active fires in northeastern Portugal and northwestern Spain. A true-color version is also available, allowing for a closer inspection of the affected areas.
Beyond endangering lives and destroying ecosystems, the fires are causing a severe deterioration in air quality. This is demonstrated by a map of atmospheric carbon monoxide levels, produced using data from the European Commission’s Atmosphere Monitoring Service (Cams), which is gathered primarily by the Sentinel-5P satellite and the new instruments aboard Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5.