ESA satellite wildfire monitoring advancements

The European Space Agency (ESA) has utilized satellite technology to monitor and improve the visualization of wildfire activity. Initially, Sentinel-5P satellite data was used to track extensive aerosol and smoke plumes from wildfires across the Iberian Peninsula and southern France.

To enhance monitoring capabilities, the ESA integrated a dedicated wildfire visualization tool into the Copernicus browser. This update, driven by an initiative from Sentinel-2 mission specialist Simon Proud, allows users to identify active flames, burning vegetation, and charred surfaces through specific color-coding on Sentinel-2 imagery. This removes the previous requirement for specialists to manually use custom visualization scripts, providing a streamlined tool for journalists, investigators, and the public. While Sentinel-2 offers high-resolution imagery up to ten meters, it updates every few days, complementing NASA’s FIRMS system which offers more frequent but lower-resolution updates.

Further advancements have been made to accelerate data delivery via the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission. In collaboration with Eumetsat, a new transmission strategy was implemented to optimize data downloads when the satellite is within range of the Svalbard ground station in Norway. As of August 3, 2026, this optimization has reduced the delivery time for imagery of Central and Southern Europe from three hours to between 60 and 90 minutes. This faster turnaround is intended to improve crisis management and emergency response capabilities during wildfire seasons.