European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano took this image on August 24, 2019, from his vantage point in the International Space Station. He tweeted this and other images of the fires, captioning them:
The smoke, visible for thousands of kilometers, of tens of human-caused fires in the Amazon forest.
— Luca Parmitano (@astro_luca) August 26, 2019
ESA wrote of the images on August 27:
The Amazon basin is home to millions of plants and animals and many indigenous people. It also produces around 20 percent of Earth’s oxygen, for which it is sometimes referred to as ‘the lungs of the world.’ The Amazon rainforest covers large parts of Brazil, as well as parts of Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina, all of which have been affected.
While fires rage in the rainforest, strong winds have carried smoke plumes thousands of kilometres across land and sea, causing a blackout in São Paulo, Brazil, some 2,500 kilometers [1,500 miles] away. Data from Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring System (CAMS) show that smoke has even travelled as far as the Atlantic coast.
Fires are common during the dry season, which runs from July to October. But this year is unlike any other.
Copernicus Sentinel-3 data have helped to detect almost 4,000 fires in August 2019 alone, compared to only 1,110 fires in the same period last year.
This year’s unprecedented blazes are four times the normal amount and are likely due to legal and illegal deforestation for agricultural purposes.
Rising global temperatures are also thought to make the region more susceptible to fire.
Read more about the fires and how satellites are observing them in this article from ESA.
Bottom line: Image acquired from ISS shows fires in the Amazon on August 24, 2019.
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.