Image of the week: Wildfire rages in Japan

Watching our Earth from space

This week’s image is of smoke from the devastating wildfire that is affecting the area around the city of Ofunato on the northeast coast of Japan. The image was captured by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites.

Last Updated

05 March 2025

Published on

05 March 2025

The fire has spread over 2,600 hectares (4 March) and led to the evacuation of thousands of local residents.

It is the biggest forest fire in decades and more than 2,000 firefighters are trying to get it under control.

The main image was captured by the OLCI instrument onboard one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites on 4 March 2025.

EUMETSAT operates the Sentinel-3 satellites, in cooperation with ESA, and delivers the marine and atmospheric data on behalf of the European Union.

More about the fires - Japan Times

Visualise Sentinel-3 data with EUMETView or WEkEO

Access atmospheric data from EUMETSAT User Portal

This week’s image is of Hurricane Melissa.

This week’s image is of Typhoon Halong.

This week’s image is of Tropical Storm Neoguri. The image was captured on 25 September by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites.

This week’s image shows sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean in 2024.

This week’s image is of Hurricane Kiko.

This week’s image shows a phytoplankton bloom off the southwest coast of the UK.