ESA - Observing the Earth - Spanish forest fire aftermath surveyed by Envisat

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Spanish forest fire aftermath surveyed by Envisat

4 August 2005

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A fireman fights a raging forest fire by the village of Selas in Guadalajara, Selas, 19 July 2005. Helicopters and planes continued to water-bomb hot spots of a massive fire that killed 11 volunteer firefighters and destroyed vast tracts of pine forest in central Spain.

Credits: AFP PHOTO/Pedro ARMESTRE

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A large forest fire that killed 11 people, took place in Guadalajara, Spain from the 16 to 19 July 2005. An estimation of burnt area was performed using the MERIS Full Resolution image acquired on the 24th of July 2005. A Matched Filtering analysis was applied on the layer stack obtained from the thirteen reflectance bands plus the Bottom of Atmosphere Vegetation Index (BOAVI) and Top of Atmosphere Vegetation Index (TOAVI) bands.

Credits: ESA/Laboratorio de Teledetección of INIA

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The ‘endmember’ was drawn on the image, on areas that could be visually classified as very burnt. The file obtained from the Matched Filtering analysis was reclassified by modifying the histogram and pixels with values over 0.3 were considered burnt. The resulting perimeter can be seen here. The burnt area is 11313 hectares.

Credits: ESA/Laboratorio de Teledetección of INIA

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View of the forest devastated after a fire in Mazarete, near Guadalajara, 19 July 2005. Helicopters and planes continued to water-bomb hot spots of a massive fire that killed 11 volunteer firefighters and destroyed vast tracts of pine forest in central Spain.

Credits: AFP PHOTO/Pedro ARMESTRE

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ESA's ten-instrument Envisat environmental satellite has been observing the Earth for more than three years. Picture by EADS Astrium.

Credits: EADS Astrium