The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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This Envisat image taken on 30 August 2007 captures the devastation to Greece’s landscape after blazes burned out of control for a week, killing more than 60 people.
Burned areas are visible as dark brown. Some 190 000 hectares, 10 times the annual average for the past 50 years, were ravaged between Friday and Tuesday, according to the European Commission's European Forest Fire Information System. Since the beginning of 2007, 275 000 hectares have been destroyed by fire.
Quantifying fires is important for the ongoing study of climate because they have a significant impact on global atmospheric pollution, with biomass burning contributing to the global budgets of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide. The 1998 El Niño, for example, helped encourage fires across Borneo which emitted up to 2.5 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, equivalent to Europe's entire carbon emissions that year.