How the land heals — in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine
42,660 hectares burned in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine — the fire started on April 3, 2020. Below, one satellite image per year — always in the same season — shows how the vegetation returns. The detailed day-by-day image series is on the fire’s original case page van.
2020
2026
Year by year
2020-04-05
2020
What does this series show? The first image was taken right after the fire
(April 5, 2020) — the dark patch is the fresh burn scar. Each following image was taken once a year, on the clearest day around the anniversary — so the seasonal colors are comparable. Where the patch gradually turns green again, vegetation is recovering; where it stays pale or grey after years, recovery is slower. The images come from the Sentinel-2 satellites — 7 yearly images.
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2020–2026 · satellite imagery: Copernicus Sentinel-2 · the fire’s day-by-day series · more recovery pages