Natural Hazards
Monitoring the South Asia 2022 Heatwave
The Metop and IODC missions are used to track temperature anomalies across South Asia during the March-April 2022 heatwave
Climate change caused by humans is making heat waves more frequent, hotter and longer. One effect of this is the early arrival of long-lasting high temperatures over India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, leading to a heat wave with a large spatial extent in March and April 2022. The hottest months for India (around May and June), are when phenomena of this nature tend to occur. In April, as the Sun moves northward, the heat in India builds up quickly as incursions of cold air are blocked by the highlands to the north.
Summer 2021: Heatwaves Brought Record High Temperatures in Europe
Heatwave in August 2021 Hit Mostly Southern Europe
Over most of Europe June 2021 already had 1.5°C higher temperatures than the long term 1991 - 2020 average. Northeastern countries were especially affected by high temperatures in the second part of June. The heatwave also extended to Moscow and Siberia. Globally, August 2021 was the third warmest month on record. In Europe as a whole, the temperatures in this period were close to the 1991-2020 average. However, there were significant temperature variations across the continent, with southern and easternmost Europe experiencing warmer than average conditions, while northern Europe had colder than average conditions.
Volcanic Eruption on the Island of La Palma: Demonstrating the Application of the Satellite Fire Radiative Power Product
The longest volcano known activity till now on the Island of La Palma as seen from Meteosat
In the northwestern Canary island of La Palma, a volcanic eruption has started at the Cumbre Vieja volcano ridge on the 19th of September of 2021 after being inactive for over 50 years. It is the 8th recorded series of historical eruptions of Cumbre Vieja volcano. The volcano eruption lasted 85 days and ejected more than 107 m3 of material. Radiative power rise due to lava flow can be detected from various satellites. LSA SAF fire radiative power pixel (FRP-PIXEL: LSA-502) product is developed to detect high radiative disturbances every 15 minutes using Meteosat satellite.
Fire Radiative Power Pixel product used for detection of volcano activity
Example of Etna activity in February 2021
In 2020 there were some sporadic eruptions of volcano Etna in South Italy’s island Sicily. Gradually increased activity has been detected from December 2020 and has been more intensive and frequent in the second half of February, which is presented below. Satellites can be used to detect several different gasses and ash in the atmosphere. Here the focus was on Fire Radiative Power Pixel (FRPPIXEL, LSA-502), which is primarily made for fire detection, but can also be used to detect lava from volcanic eruption.
August 2020 Heatwave over NW Europe
Derived Land Surface Temperature and it’s potential to detect areas with largest temperature anomalies
In the first half of August 2020 a second heatwave hit north-western Europe, which was caused by a hot air mass intrusion from Africa. LSA SAF Derived Land Surface Temperature (DLST; LSA-003) products are obtained from all available 15 minute Meteosat LST within a 10 day period. The DLST include Maximum LST composites and so-called Thermal Surface Parameters (TSP), which further summarize the information contained in the composites.
Warm October in Europe
October 2019 among the warmest ones on record
After a very warm September, October 2019 was also significantly above average in terms of temperatures. Globally, it was among the warmest on record and the warmest one in Europe since 1981 based on ERA5 reanalyses...
Heatwave strikes Europe
June ends with sweltering temperatures across Europe
Central Europe felt an intense heatwave at the end of June. The animation shows the daily maximum land surface temperature anomalies for the time period between 24 of June and 2 of July 2019. The reference period is taken here as the 2004-2018 median.
Hot European Summer of 2018
Record-Breaking Heat in Many Parts of Europe
Europe experienced a long period of dry and hot weather in spring and summer 2018. Many parts of western, northern and central Europe were exposed to record-breaking heat, severe droughts and extensive wildfires. The north of Europe was exceptionally warm and dry from May till July.
October 2017 warmer than usual for most places in Europe
The LST and FVC products from the LSA SAF prove to be good tools to monitor extreme fire events in Portugal
The Nile valley and delta are among the first places where agriculture and civilisation came into existence. The Nile water flow with the largest inflow in the summer, because of the rainy season in the Ethiopian Highlands, supports irrigation in an otherwise very barren region (away from the Mediterranean coast the interior of Egypt has one of the driest climates in the world with precipitation barely above zero).
"Lucifer": Early august 2017 heat wave over Southern Europe
Instantaneous LSA SAF land surface temperature is a good spatial indicator of areas that experienced record temperatures
In early August 2017 Southern Europe experienced a severe heat wave that the media referred to as ‘Lucifer’: in many parts of Southern Europe air temperatures exceeded 40°C.