The European Space Agency’s satellites, Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B contain SLSTR sensors which can monitor active fires around the world. Data collected from the Sentinel-3 World Fire Atlas, showed a nearly five-fold increase in fires in August 2019 as compared to August 2019. The satellites recored 79,000 fires this August while only 16,000 fires were recorded globally last August.
The trend of wildfires detected in 2019 are shown in red, while fires detected in 2018 can be seen in green. Source: ESA
Almost half of the fires (49%) were detected in Asia. Around 28% were detected in South America, 16% in Africa, and the remaining were recorded in North America, Europe and Oceania.
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Compare Maps of Global Fires: August 2018 and August 2019
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