ASAR

Following the extremely hot weather conditions hitting Europe, Norway experienced its biggest forest fire in the last half century earlier this month. Envisat satellite images were used in the fire’s aftermath to get an overview of the damaged area for authorities and insurance companies.

This image, recorded by the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) sensor on board Envisat, on 15 May 2008 shows the mountainous terrain of southern Norway. Due to the imaging technology of the radar instrument, mountains and valleys can be clearly depicted.

This Envisat image combines two Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) acquisitions – one from 15 May and one from 19 June 2008 (before and after the fire) – in order to detect the extent of damages that occurred in Norway’s largest forest fire. The burnt area is visible as a red cluster in the image centre (top). Other reddish-coloured areas do not represent fire damage but rather changes that occurred between acquisitions.

in www.esa.int