Drought in the Netherlands

The drought that swept through Europe this year has hit European farmers hard. Sustained high temperatures and the lack of rain have badly affected the agrofood industry, including the important potato sector.

This animation shows the differences in vegetation development detected by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites in the Emmeloord region of the Netherlands between August 2017 and August 2018. The effects of the drought are clear here with a significant shift from lush greens in 2017 to brown shades the following year clearly visible.

As well as providing detailed information about Earth’s vegetation, Sentinel-2 is designed to play a key role in mapping differences in land cover to understand the landscape, map how it is used and monitor changes over time.