File:Carbon monoxide pollution from ongoing wildfires on North America’s West Coast (Copernicus).jpg

English: This image shows carbon monoxide levels for the West Coast of the United States retrieved from data collected on 19 August by the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite. The persistent record temperatures and the extreme drought across the United States and Canadian West Coast are triggering widespread wildfires (often referred to as “megafires”). According to data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, carbon emissions from the ongoing California wildfires are the highest recorded since 2003 for this period of the year. Burning down an area larger than Luxembourg, the Dixie Fire is one of the most severe and extended fires ever recorded in California. The fire started on 13 July, it has burned 2,831 km2 as of 19 August and is still uncontained. As a result, CO peaked at 0.08 mol/m2 near San Francisco and the invisible CO plume covers an area greater than 3 million km2, as shown in the image. Carbon monoxide (CO) is a powerful greenhouse gas. The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite allows scientists to monitor CO levels with an unprecedented level of detail on a global scale, with a revisit time of one day.