Southern Europe is once again in the grip of extreme summer heat. Soaring temperatures and bone-dry land have fuelled widespread wildfires, with the Iberian Peninsula among the regions hardest hit. Flames continue to sweep across parched landscapes, as these images show.

From orbit, Earth-observing satellites offer a unique way of tracking the spread of fires and supporting emergency crews battling the blazes on the ground. The images featured here reveal the scale of the crisis, with dense smoke plumes from several fires stretching across large areas of northwest Spain and northern Portugal.

To assist, the European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service has been activated for several of these fires, as well as for recent blazes in other parts of Europe. This service uses satellite imagery and other geospatial data to produce free, rapid-response maps for disaster situations worldwide – vital tools that help emergency organisations coordinate their response, support recovery and plan for future risks.

While the service is currently mostly using very-high-resolution satellite images to respond to the fires in Spain and Portugal, the Copernicus Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-2 missions provide a broader overview – delivering consistent, wide-scale monitoring of fire activity and its impact across the region.

The first image here was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission on 17 August 2025. This wide view of France, Spain and Portugal is dominated by smoke billowing from fires in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula.

Thick plumes of smoke can be seen drifting northward and eastward under prevailing winds, merging with cloud systems over the Atlantic and blanketing large portions of the Bay of Biscay. Some of this northbound smoke is also being blown back over Spain’s Mediterranean coast.

Wildfires like these not only endanger lives and devastate wildlife, habitats, agriculture and property, but they also severely degrade air quality, compounding their impact on human health.

The map below spans southern Europe, North Africa, the Mediterranean and across to the Black Sea to show fire hotspots (above) and concentrations of atmospheric carbon monoxide (below), also on 17 August. Breathing air polluted with carbon monoxide can cause significant health problems.

Hotspots are categorised by radiative power using data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), aboard the joint NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership, NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 satellites.

The carbon monoxide map is based on data from the European Commission’s Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). Largely based on satellite data, CAMS provides information related to air pollution and health, solar energy, greenhouse gases and climate forcing around the world. The current Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite and the newly-launched Copernicus Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5 instruments are key to providing such data.

The final image (below), acquired on 16 August by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, is a false-colour view that uses the satellite’s shortwave-infrared channel to highlight active fires in northeast Portugal and northwest Spain. A corresponding true-colour version is also available, allowing a closer look at the affected areas.

While the immediate priority in any wildfire crisis is to extinguish the flames and protect communities, the longer-term challenge is that such events are expected to become more frequent and intense as the climate crisis deepens.

Fire is recognised as an Essential Climate Variable, playing a critical role in the Earth system by influencing atmospheric composition, carbon cycles and ecosystems. To better understand and monitor these dynamics, ESA harnesses satellite observations through its Climate Change Initiative Fire Project and its new XFires Project.

The Climate Change Initiative is designed to generate consistent, long-term global datasets of Essential Climate Variables that provide robust evidence of our changing climate, supporting both scientific research and international policy frameworks such as the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. These projects are helping to improve predictions, guide adaptation strategies, and strengthen our collective response to a warming world.

Source: ESA