Wildfires were raging Val di Susa during the last three days. Val di Susa is an alpine valley located in the western part of Piemonte, region of north Italy, west of Turin and bordering France. The state of emergency is due to the very long periods of drought and the wildfires were also fed by the foehn winds that during last days reached a speed of the order of 90 kmh.

The combination of the different bands of Sentinel-2 enables to produce accurate maps of burnt areas. The images below have been spotted by Sentinel-2A acquisition in the morning of October 24th.

The first image is obtained using bands in the visible range, whereas the second is a false-color image obtained  with a combination of bands (B08/B04/B03), giving a view of burnt areas. The images highlight ongoing fire areas and the massive smoke and ash plumes, which appear as light-blue.

Sentinel-2 images gathered over time enable also the monitoring of the recovery of devastated land, especially in relation to environmental disasters.