Already on 13 September 2024, one week after its launch, the Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite began delivering images of our planet.One of its first images shows Lighthouse Reef, an atoll of the Belize Barrier Reef in the Caribbean Sea. Home to the Great Blue Hole, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Lighthouse Reef is a popular destination for...

A low-pressure system named Boris brought heavy rain to central Europe between 11 and 15 September, causing widespread flooding from Poland to Romania and at least seven casualties. In Romania, more than 5,000 homes have been evacuated due to severe flooding, with roads in eight provinces blocked or severely affected. In the Czech Republic, 38...

In the eastern Netherlands, the city of Enschede, visible in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image acquired on 20 July 2024, was once the site of a booming textile industry. The extensive use of groundwater for industrial operations depleted many of the area's natural water sources, allowing infrastructure to be built on the newly dry land. Since...

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image acquired on 10 August 2024 shows the Stubacher Sonnblickkees glacier in the federal state of Salzburg in Austria.  Situated at an altitude of 2,700 metres, the glacier has undergone considerable losses in size and mass due to high temperatures. In the last 25 years, it has lost 45 million cubic metres of ice,...

On 10 September 2024, the Vistula River in Warsaw, Poland, fell to a historic low. The record follows days of hydrological drought in the country, an unusual event for early September, when the rainy period typically begins. Rivers across the country are facing similar conditions, with 73% of national hydrological stations reporting unusually...