A recent study was carried out comparing NASA's FIRMS data with Copernicus Sentinel data, resulting in Copernicus Sentinel-1 data particularly detecting wildfires in Australia.

While two explorers were having problems cruising the ice across the North Pole on skies, due to bad weather and complications with equipment, the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites lent a hand to guide rescuers through the maze of ice and water to save the day.

Featuring how the Sentinel missions of the European Union's Copernicus programme, particularly Sentinel-1, have become a game-changer to the Danish Meteorological Institute's Ice Service and to the project – Automated Sea Ice Products – creating a robust, automated sea ice information service, solving the main needs of Arctic marine users.

Italy has been victim of days-long flooding and high-tides, owing to the severe weather of the past weeks. Although forecasts do not promise an improvement just yet, the Copernicus Sentinels have teamed up to help monitor the situation.

On 11 October, some 95 km from the Saudi city of Jeddah, an Iranian-owned oil tanker was damaged, resulting in the loss of oil in the Red Sea. The Copernicus Sentinels are being used to monitor the resulting oil spill.

Dormant since 1924, the Raikoke Volcano in the Kuril Island chain, near the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, recently awoke. Data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P and Sentinel-3 satellites are giving vital information on its aftermath.

An early detection of changing patterns and altering ecosystems in coastal wetlands can prevent irreversible biodiversity loss and assist in the identification of problematic areas. The Copernicus Sentinel missions are now providing vital information to help visualise and explain trends to policy makers.

Intertidal habitats can change rapidly, not just in spatial extent but also in vegetation type and cover. Newly created coastal managed realignment sites are a prime example where channels migrate and the vegetation changes from terrestrial to mud flats and saltmarshes.

Monitoring these changes is difficult due to their highly dynamic behaviour, inaccessible nature and risk of ecological damage caused by field work. Aerial photography is costly and thus usually restricted to once a year at best—however, Copernicus Sentinel data are changing things.