Publié le 26 mars 2026
Wildfires that swept across the Amazon in 2024 were the most devastating in more than two decades. New research funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) suggests emissions may have been up to three times higher than earlier estimates.
Fires are a recurring phenomenon in central South America, often intensified by drought and deforestation. In 2024, wildfire activity reached its highest levels in 20 years, affecting vast areas of the Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado – the world’s most biodiverse tropical savanna, stretching across one-fifth of Brazil and extending into Bolivia and Paraguay.
Smoke from wildfires in Bolivia, September 2024
A paper, published in Geophysical Research Letters, used artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse satellite observations of carbon monoxide during the August–September 2024 fire season. Scientists used this gas as an indicator of carbon dioxide emissions, combining the satellite data with wildfire models.
The results suggest that current scientific methods significantly underestimate carbon emissions, with actual carbon output potentially between 1.5 and three times higher.
This has important implications for climate models and global carbon budgets, which rely on accurate wildfire emission estimates.
Source:
European Space Agency (ESA). (2026, March 25). Amazon wildfire emissions up to three times higher than estimated. Observing the Earth. https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentine…