This image, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 20 August 2024, shows severe flooding caused by the overflowing of the Indus River south of Kandhkot, a small town in Pakistan's Sindh province.Heavy monsoon rains have caused widespread flooding across the country, leading to significant devastation. Local authorities have...

For weeks, wildfires in northern Canada have been spewing vast amounts of smoke which has travelled thousands of kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean, darkening the skies of Western Europe. The plume first reached the British Isles and then continued south-eastwards. This true-colour image, acquired by the Copernicus Sentinel-3B satellite at...

This image, acquired on 18 August 2024 by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites, shows a plume of smoke 130 km long rising from the Portuguese island of Madeira as a result of a large forest fire which started on 15 August. The fire began in the Serra de Água area of Ribeira Brava and quickly spread to Câmara de Lobos, where it continues...

This image, acquired by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on 16 August 2024, shows the eye of Ampil, a typhoon which formed in the Pacific Ocean earlier that month. The storm rapidly intensified, bringing heavy rain and winds to Japan's Izu Islands and to coastal areas of the Kanto and Tohoku regions between 10 and 12 August. With an...

On 11 August, a large wildfire burned out of control in Attica, Greece. The fire has affected at least 10,000 hectares and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.  This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, acquired on 12 August at 09:05 UTC (12:05 Greek local time), shows the ongoing blaze a few kilometres from the centre of Athens. It combines...

During the summer of 2024, the Svalbard Archipelago (in Arctic Norway) is confronted with a new record episode of ice sheet melting.  According to the Laboratory of Climatology and Topoclimatology at the University of Liège, in early August, snow and ice melting on the surface of the Svalbard ice caps reached the highest levels ever recorded,...

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has recently released its latest monthly Climate Bulletin, which highlights that July 2024 was the second warmest July on record globally. Air temperatures reached 16.91°C, 0.68°C above the 1991-2020 average for July, and only 0.04°C lower than the previous high set in July 2023.      This data...

On 7 August 2024, Canada has been affected by an intense heatwave and several wildfires. The temperature in Inuvik, an Arctic town located less than 100 km from the Arctic Ocean, reached a record high of 34.8°C.  At the same time, several wildfires were ongoing in the region. According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of...

Biomass burning is common in South America at this time of year. In the summer of 2024, the phenomenon was particularly intense, with the number of fires rising to a record high for the month of July, one of the highest in 20 years. This Copernicus Sentinel-3 image, acquired on 30 July 2024, shows a large plume of smoke in the state of...

The Zongo glacier is located in the Huayna Potosi massif in Bolivia. The glacier is 3 km long and has a surface area of 2.4 km2 This is a 3D rendering of an image acquired by Sentinel-2 on July 31, 2024. Copernicus data and services allow the monitoring of glaciers around the world.

The recent fire that broke out in the province of Cuenca left over 1500 hectares burned. On July 31, 2024, Copernicus Sentinel-2 captured an image that depicts the extent of the burned area.  This is a Short-Wave Infrared visualisation. 

So, what is a glacier?  A glacier is made up of fallen snow that has been compressed into a large, thickened ice mass over many thousands of years. Captured on July 21, 2024, this glacier image shows the power of true colour Sentinel-2 imagery for evaluating cryosphere patterns. Slight highlight compression was applied to avoid the...

Large fires have been reported in Bulgaria as an extreme heatwave has been sweeping the southern Balkans over the past few days. On July 18, 2024, Copernicus Senitnel-2 captured an image of the Stara Zagora region showing the burn scars the blaze left behind. We can still observe the fire burning near Bolyarovo.  Earlier yesterday, the...

The Curonian Spit is a long and thin sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. Formed by the accumulation of glacial debris, and sand carried by the wind, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, whose northern part lies in Lithuania. The Spit is an important ecological area and home to several migratory bird species,...

The Dukono volcano is a remote volcano on the island of Halmahera, Maluku, Indonesia. It is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Dukono with a height of 1185 meters above sea level is located in the northern part of Halmahera Island.  In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 Image acquired on 29 May 2024, we see ash from the volcano crater,...

Located in the heart of South America, Pantanal is the world’s largest wetland covering some 81,081 sq miles (210,000 sq km). The majority is in Brazil, split between the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. These open marshes are home to an immense variety of life – if you like to see animals in their natural environment, the Pantanal...

Etna is the most active stratovolcano on the planet and one of the highest mountains in Italy, and the highest volcano in Europe, with a height of 3,357 metres. This Sentinel-2 image captured on July 7th, 2024, shows lava and ash spewing from the volcano crater. Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites are important in monitoring volcanic activity...

Famed for its sugar-cubed houses and incredible number of pristine beaches, Serifos is one of the hidden gems of the Cyclades islands in Greece.  A wildfire on the 29th of June 2024 burned down and damaged houses, storage buildings, cottages, and small chapels and had 8 settlements in the south of the island evacuated. This image taken on July...

Nyiragongo, one of the world's most beautiful and active volcanoes, is a large stratovolcano near Lake Kivu at the eastern border of DR Congo with Rwanda in the Virunga National Park. On June 25, 2024, Copernicus Sentinel-2 captured a small volcanic activity.  This is a Sentinel-2 image with a Wildfire visualization custom script. This...

In June 2024, the Ahuachapán Department in western El Salvador has been affected by heavy rainfall that has caused a series of landslides and floods. Sentinel-1 images such as this one from 23 June 2024 can be collected through cloud cover and are therefore not sensitive to weather. On this false colour composite, water surfaces are dark blue...