File:Intense Wildfire Season in Mexico (Copernicus).jpg

English: These two images show, left, the concentration of Carbon Monoxide (CO) in the tropospheric column over Mexico, as measured by the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite on May 4, 2021, and on the right, a view, acquired by one of the two satellites of the Sentinel-2 mission on the same day, of one of the many wildfires that are affecting the country, located about 80 km east of the city of San Luis Potosi. According to the National Forest Commission of Mexico, the current fire season is one of the worst in the past 6 years, with data on the number of fires and burnt forest area that are only second to those recorded in 2017. The period from 1 January to 15 April 2021 has seen a 97% increase in the number of fires compared to the same period in 2020 and of 29% compared to 2019. Official data records a total number of fires above 4000 for the first quarter of 2021. One of the main causes of such an increase in the number of wildfires is the extreme drought conditions which are affecting about 85% of the country. According to the Mexican Meteorological Service, the situation is critical, especially in Northern Mexico. The Sentinel missions of the Copernicus Programme provide petabytes of free and open data and allow to monitor our planet by measuring a wide spectrum of highly relevant parameters from space: while the Sentinel-5P mission provides daily information on air quality and on the chemical composition of the atmosphere, the twin Sentinel-2 satellites are equipped with a high (up to 10m) spatial resolution multispectral instrument which allows to image areas affected by wildfires and to monitor their evolution over time.