This year has been a tumultuous one, shaped by a global pandemic and record-breaking natural disaste
This year has been a tumultuous one, shaped by a global pandemic and record-breaking natural disasters. But it has also been host to some amazing human achievements and social movements. With 2021 fast approaching, we’re sharing some of 2020’s defining events as seen from space. Stay tuned over the next few days for Overview’s 2020 Year in Review.Many experts and analysts are calling 2020 the “year of fire” after intense wildfires burned millions of acres across continents and climate zones. The first Overview here shows brushfires in New South Wales, Australia in January 2020, about halfway through a fire season that ultimately scorched more than 46 million acres. The second shows smoke above Lake Berryessa, California from the LNU Lightning Complex — one of many fire systems that burned a record-breaking 4.2 million acres across the state. Last, fires raged as far north as Siberia this year, like the one seen here in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region.Source imagery: ESA - European Space Agency / Planet / Greenpeace International -- source link