Satellites are tracing Europe's forest fire scars Burning with a
core heat approaching 800°C and spreading at up to 100 metres
per minute, woodland blazes bring swift, destructive change to
landscapes: the resulting devastation can be seen from space. An
ESA-backed service to monitor European forest fire damage will
help highlight areas most at risk of future outbreaks. Last
year's long hot summer was a bumper year for forest fires, with
more than half a million hectares of woodland destroyed across
Mediterranean Europe. So far this year fresh fires have occurred
across Portugal, Spain and southern France, with 2500 people
evacuated from blazes in foothills north of Marseille. According
to the European Commission, each hectare of forest lost to fire
costs Europe's economy between a thousand and 5000 Euros. The
distinctive 'burn scars' left across the land by forest fires
can be identified from space as a specific reddish-brown
spectral signature from a false-colour composite of spectral
bands from optical sen