Even satellites can see an on-going heatwave that baked Europe. A satellite image of Europe was obtained, showing red pulses that reveal the effect of the heatwave that baked the whole continent in July, after breaking extreme temperature records in June.
The image below is based on data from the European Union’s Copernicus program, shows high temperatures, especially in the regions of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Paris recently reached a peak of 105 degrees Fahrenheit or 41 degrees Celsius, surpassing a record set in 1947, according to the statement released by European Space Agency.
The data displayed in the images were gathered by the Copernicus Sentinel-3’s sea and land surface temperature radiometer, which measures the energy radiating from the Earth. That makes this technique more accurate by detecting land temperature rather than mainstream weather forecasts that measure air temperatures, according to ESA.
Due to the recent heatwave, many countries have issued warnings to residents in addition to the recommendation to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated and avoid unnecessary traveling, especially during day time.
The Earth undergoes natural cycles of warming and cooling, therefore mainstream weather events cannot be directly related to climate change, a global concern, and a threat. But these abnormal warming trends and other climatic anomalies are absolutely human-driven changes as Homo sapiens, an intelligent species drastically increased atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas commonly released by automobiles and industrial emissions.
The current warming of this planet took place after the industrial revolution and accelerated later on, and it only took about 150 years, compared to tens of thousands of years took by a warming period in the past known as the Paleo-Eocene Thermal Maximum. At that time, the average rise in temperature was 5–8 °C across the globe. The exact time period and duration of the event is still unknown but it is believed to have occurred approximately 55.5 million years ago. For reference, note that Big Bang and the creation of Universe happened 13.5 billion years ago, theoretically.
