Location

Chile is a long and narrow country situated along the western edge of South America, bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Andes Mountains to the east, Peru to the north, and Argentina to the east and south. Its distinctive geographic positioning grants Chile a diverse range of landscapes, from the arid Atacama Desert in the north to the lush forests and fjords of the south, making it a country of exceptional natural beauty and contrasts.

Flora

Chile's flora exhibit remarkable diversity due to its varying climate and geography. From the arid north to the temperate south, the country showcases a spectrum of ecosystems. In the northern desert regions, hardy desert plants like cacti and succulents thrive, while the central zone is marked by fertile valleys with vineyards, fruit trees, and Mediterranean vegetation. The southern regions feature lush temperate rainforests with iconic species such as the Araucaria tree and the Valdivian temperate rainforest.

Wildfires

Starting on 30 January 2023, a series of wildfires began in the South American country of Chile. By early February, the fires had developed into a large outbreak of at least 406 individual fires, several dozen of which were classified as "red alert fires". The fires burned more than 430,000 hectares (1,100,000 acres) and resulted in the loss of 24 lives, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency in multiple regions of the country.

As of 18 February, 256 fires were burning across the country while a further 151 were under control. After a period of reprieve, fires began reigniting on 18 February in south-central Chile. By 20 February, the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred) announced that 173 foci had been extinguished, but that 70 were still active

At least 800 homes have been destroyed by the fires. Almost 300,000 hectares burned in the regions of Maule, Ñuble, Biobío and Araucanía. On 7 February 2023, smoke from the fires drifted over the capital, Santiago. Chile's massive pulp and paper company CMPC confirmed that over 10,000 hectares of its plantations have been affected by the fires and some of its processing plants' operations had been halted. Chilean pulp and wood panel maker Arauco estimates a $50 million hit due to the fires

Perimeter

Satellite technologhy is able to detect the perimeter of the wildfire, and therefore it is possible to estimate both the area and the length of the perimeter firefighters have to cover. In the wildfire analysed, the extension of the burn area was roughly that of the Yosemite National Park in the US.

Land Cover

With help form the ESA CCI programme, it is possible to locate the burnt area and the implications it had on both vegetation and urban areas. In this map the land cover dataset from ESA is overlapped with the remote sensing data, in order to spot the land that was impacted.

Hotspots

Satellite techonology uses not one but several satellites orbiting the Earth that are able to detect thermal anomalies that help identify hotspots in wildfires. In this map we are showing the GOES-16 satellite data for the whole length of the wildfire. Note the regular distribution of the hotspot detection, and the varying uncertainty associated with each one of the measurements.