European Space Agency Takes a Look at the Wildfires in Greece

The European Space Agency has released the results of the reports gathered from their satellites that show the extent of the number of wildfires this year in Greece. There have been more wildfires in Greece in the month of August of this year than other European countries have experienced in the last 10 years. The latest outbreak is close to a week old, is still going on and so far at least 60 people have been reported killed.

Part of the reason they give for this is the fact that the summer temperatures were record setting and there were very hot and dry winds in many parts of the Mediterranean area, including Greece and the southern part of Italy.

Their satellites constantly monitor fires across the entire Earth. The sensors on the satellites are extremely sensitive and they measure the thermal infrared radiation in order to take the temperatures of the Earths surfaces. When the temperature of the land surface reaches 308K ( 94.73 F or 34,85 C), it is classified as a burning fire. They use the results to conduct research in the fields of atmospheric chemistry, land use change, global change ecology, fire prevention and management and meteorology.

Monitoring the number of fires plays an important roll in the continuing study of our climate because of the significant impact they have on the atmospheric pollution world wide by contributing substances like carbon dioxide. For instance, back in 1998, we experienced an El Nino which spurred fires across the country of Borneo and these fires contributed in the neighborhood of 2.5 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere. As an example, this was roughly equal to the carbon emissions from all the countries in Europe for the whole year.

There is one problem that the satellites have been a great help in resolving and that is that both during the fires and after they have been put it, it is has been virtually impossible to get an overall prospective of the damage.