ESA satellites capture images of extreme heat in Europe: up to 55ºC on the Earth’s surface

Aug. 22 () –

The high temperatures and the series of historical maximums that have been reached in Western Europe have been the visible signs of the heat waves that have occurred in recent weeksand that has also been observed from space, through the satellite Copernicus Sentinel-3.

The International Space Station (ESA) has obtained images of the terrestrial surface in the south of France, Spain and North Africa, where in some points 55ºC have been reached on the surface of the ground, as it happened on the morning of July 17.

Earth’s surface temperature represents how hot the ground feels to the touch, and is different from air temperature, included in daily weather forecasts, which it represents how hot the air is over the ground, as clarified by the ESA.

However, he clarifies, these data were obtained during the morning of July 17, so the temperature would increase as the day progressed. Forest fires in the Gironde region, in southern France, are also identified in the image of the ground surface temperature released by ESA.

Another image shows the fires that devastate the area of ​​the municipality of Guillos (France) and, in a second, the surface of the area destroyed by the fire a short distance to the west, near the town of Cazaux (France).

The animations are based on data from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission and have been created with images obtained on July 12, before the fires started, and on July 17, when they were already active. “The difference can be easily seen,” says the ESA.

The agency warns that, while alerts for high temperatures are still active, there are also others for drought in almost half of the European Unionposing an even more prolonged risk to water supplies and agricultural food production.

In this sense, they warn that as the effects of climate change increase, so will this type of extreme weather events.

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