Key facts
- Europe's Copernicus Browser now offers a dedicated wildfire visualization layer.
- The layer uses Sentinel-2 satellite imagery with 10-meter resolution.
- Active fires appear white or yellow, burning vegetation in red, and burned landscapes in dark brown or black.
- The visualization is based on a script combining visible light, near-infrared, and short-wave infrared bands.
- This tool provides a free and open resource for monitoring wildfires globally.
Europe's Copernicus Browser has enhanced its wildfire tracking capabilities with a new visualization layer, making it easier for the public to monitor active fires. The update, which went live on August 4, utilizes high-resolution imagery from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites. This new layer, developed from a script by remote sensing expert Pierre Markuse and integrated with the advocacy of ESA's Simon Proud, displays active fires in white or yellow, burning vegetation in red, and burned landscapes in dark brown or black. The Sentinel-2 satellites offer multi-spectral imaging with resolutions as fine as 10 meters, providing significantly more detail than NASA's FIRMS tool, which has a coarser resolution of 250 meters. While Sentinel-2 imagery is updated every few days, its higher resolution makes it a valuable free resource for monitoring wildfires and other global events. The enhancement comes amid a period of record-breaking wildfire seasons worldwide, exacerbated by climate change, affecting regions such as Washington, Oregon, Canada, France, and Spain.