European Space Agency (ESA) satellites have been spying on the rash of fires in Greece, which – at last count – have killed more than 60 people, threatened the ancient birthplace of the Olympic Games, and sparked a political crisis.
On the ground, the national emergency is being blamed on rogue arsonists, looking to burn off forest land where they had previously been banned from building new developments.
From space, the scale of the fires painfully evident, and astonishing. Virtually the whole country is aflame.
The picture is a composite of readings taken between Aug. 21 and Aug. 26 from the ESA's ERS-2 and Envisat satellites. Both measure thermal infrared information to develop a picture of the Earth's land temperatures.
(Photo Credit: ESA)
