Planet Satellites Deliver Real-Time Views of Devastating Amazon Fires
Satellite company Planet uses high-resolution imagery to provide near real-time views of the fires currently ravaging the Brazilian Amazon, cutting through the misinformation of outdated photos shared online.
Satellite company Planet provides near real-time, high-resolution images of the fires that currently devastate the Brazilian Amazon. While social media and news outlets often share misleading photos from past fires, Planet's constellation of satellites performs near-daily overflights to show exactly what unfolds on the ground right now.
These clear images reveal active fires burning on the margins of forests and cleared agricultural areas in states like Mato Grosso and Pará. Rather than just offering dramatic snapshots, the satellite data provides crucial insights into the scale of the destruction across the entire Amazon basin.
Researchers use this detailed imagery to map forest change down to individual trees and track the massive carbon emissions resulting from the blazes. Scientists warn that the Amazon holds about half of all tropical forest carbon, making these ongoing fires a deeply serious threat to global climate change.