Mediterranean European countries, including Portugal, are considered fire-prone regions, being affected by fire events every summer. Nonetheless, Portugal has been recording large burned areas over the last 20 years, which are not only strongly associated with hot and dry conditions, but also with high fuel availability in the ecosystems. Due to recent catastrophic fire seasons, Portugal has been implementing preventive policies during the pre-fire season, which, in turn, can optimize combat strategies during the fire season. In this context, our study contributes to fire prevention by identifying the regions with the highest potential to burn. The application of a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to a range of climatological, ecological, and biophysical variables, either provided by remote sensing or reanalysis products, and known to be linked with diverse fire-vulnerability factors, allows the objective identification of the regions with the highest susceptibility to burn. The central and southernmost areas of Portugal present a stronger signal in the PCA, suggesting a likely high exposure to future fire events. The fuel accumulation over several months, in conjunction with elevation and fire weather conditions, are the terms out of the retained PCs that can explain most of the variability. The quality assessment performed for the burned areas in 2022 showed that they occurred in highly susceptible areas, highlighting the usefulness of the proposed methodology.

Climate plays a major role in the spatiotemporal distribution of most agricultural systems, and the economic losses related to climate and weather extremes have escalated significantly in the last decades. South America is one of the most productive agricultural areas of the globe. In recent years, remote sensing data and geographic information systems have been used to improve geo-environmental hazard assessment. However, food security is still highly dependent on small farmer practices that are frequently the most vulnerable to climate extremes. This work reviews climate and weather extremes’ impacts on crop production for South American countries, focusing on the projected ones considering different climate scenarios and countries. A positive trend in the productivity of maize, mainly related to agricultural improvements, was recently observed in Colombia, Ecuador, and Uruguay by up to 200%, as well as in the case of soybean in Bolivia and Uruguay by about 125%. Despite the generalized adverse impacts of climate extremes, results from agrometeorological models generally indicate an increase in crop production in southern regions of Chile (and highlands) and Brazil mainly related to increased temperature. Positive impacts in response to CO₂ fertilization are also foreseen in Peru and Brazil (southeast, south, and Minas Gerais); in particular, in Brazil, increases in productivity can be raised by about 40%. The use of double-cropping systems, although with very good results in recent years, may also be at risk in a few decades, mainly due to forecasted precipitation decrease, delay in rainy season onset, and temperature increase. The development of timely early warning systems is imperative to produce technically accurate alerts and the interpretation of the risk assessment based on the link between producers and consumers. Promoting climate index insurance is crucial to build resilient food production, but its implementation should rely on regional or international support systems. Moreover, the implementation of adaptation and mitigation also requires climate-resilient technologies that involve an interdisciplinary approach.

At the beginning of August 2018, Portugal experienced a severe heat episode over a few days that consequently increased the probability of wildfire events. Due to the advection of an anomalous very hot and dry air mass, severe fire-prone meteorological conditions were forecasted mainly over southern Portugal, in the Monchique region. Together with the significant fuel amount accumulated since the last extreme wildfire in August 2003, all the unfavorable conditions were set to drive a severe fire over this region. The Monchique fire started on 3 August 2018, being very hard to suppress and lasting for seven days, with a burnt area of 27,000 ha. Regarding the need to have operational early warning tools, this work aims to evaluate the reliability of fire probabilistic products, up to 72 h ahead, together with the use of fire radiative power products, as support tools in fire monitoring and resource activities. To accomplish this goal, we used the fire probabilistic products of the Ensemble Prediction System, provided by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. Among available fire danger rating systems, the Fire Weather Index and the Fine Fuels Moisture Code of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System were selected to assess the meteorological fire danger. The assessment of the fire intensity was based on the Fire Radiative Energy released, considering the Fire Radiative Power, delivered in near real-time, by EUMETSAT Land Surface Analysis Satellite Applications Facility. The exceptional fire danger over southern Portugal that favors the ignition of the Monchique fire and its severity was essential driven by two important factors: (i) the anomalous fire weather danger, before and during the event; (ii) the accumulated fuel amount, since the last severe event occurred in 2003, over the region. Results show that the selected fire probabilistic products described the meteorological fire danger observed well, and the LSA-SAF products revealed the huge amount of fire energy emitted, in line with the difficulties faced by authorities to suppress the Monchique fire.

Volcano eruption identification and watching is crucial to better understanding volcano dynamics, namely the near real-time identification of the eruption start, end, and duration. Eruption watching allows hazard assessment, eruption forecasting and warnings, and also risk mitigation during periods of unrest, to enhance public safety and reduce losses from volcanic events. The near real-time fire radiative power (FRP) product retrieved using information from the SEVIRI sensor onboard the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite are used to identify and follow up volcanic activity at the pan-European level, namely the Mount Etna and Cumbre Vieja eruptions which occurred during 2021. The FRP product is designed to record information on the location, timing, and fire radiative power output of wildfires. Measuring FRP from SEVIRI/MSG and integrating it over the lifetime of a fire provides an estimate of the total Fire Radiative Energy (FRE) released. Together with FRP data analysis, SO₂ data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) is used to assess the relationship between daily emitted concentrations of SO₂ and the radiative energy released during volcanic eruptions. Results show that the FRE data allows us to evaluate the amount of energy released and is related to the pollutant concentrations from volcanic emissions during the considered events. A good agreement between FRP detection and SO₂ atmospheric concentrations was found for the considered eruption occurrences. The adopted methodology, due to its simplicity and near real-time availability, shows potential to be used as a management tool to help authorities monitor and manage resources during ongoing volcanic events.

Tropospheric ozone (O3) is an important anthropogenic gas, and it is a secondary air pollutant. The combination of sunlight with non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and NOx (NO + NO2) from biomass burning results in significant photochemical production of O3. Since the fire season in Portugal occurs during the summer, these emitted O3 precursors lead to the production of O3. An excessive concentration of tropospheric O3 damage leaves, decreasing photosynthesis, plant growth and biomass accumulation and costing, therefore, billions of dollars annually in lost plant productivity. The main objective of this work is to understand if there is a relationship between the loss in crop yields due to the concentration of O3 derived from fires, in Portugal mainland. Therefore, this work is divided into three phases: i) to evaluate the relationship between tropospheric O3 and extreme fires; ii) relate the contribution of O3 to vegetation productivity contraction; and iii) relate the fire-induced O3 increments to vegetation losses. To access to tropospheric O3 concentration data Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) products were used. The AIRS Version 7 Level 3 product are daily, gridded mean geophysical parameters on 1°x1° grid cells, with higher internal vertical resolution at 100 pressure levels (1000 hPa – 1 hPa). The CAMS reanalysis (CAMSRA) O3 data have a temporal resolution of 3 h and a spatial resolution of approximately 80 km (0.7°x0.7° grid cells) with 60 hybrid sigma–pressure (model) levels (13 levels, 400 - 100 hPa) in the vertical (top level at 0.1 hPa).  Vegetation productivity is assessed by means of Gross Primary Production (GPP) available from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) collections. It can be concluded that when fires occur in large areas, such as the fires of 2012 (Serra do Caldeirão) and 2018 (Monchique) the levels of surface O3 concentration have a high increase, which can lead to a decrease in vegetation and crop productivity. Acknowledgements: This study is partially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research project FirEUrisk (Grant Agreement no. 101003890) and by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) I.P./MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) – UIDB/50019/2020- IDL,  DHEFEUS - 2022.09185.PTDC

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that air pollution is responsible for more than seven million premature deaths every year around the world. Above background concentrations, tropospheric ozone (O3) exerts negative effects on human health and vegetation. High ozone production occurs in conditions of strong sunlight and high temperature, as the acceleration of ozone formation is associated with high temperatures and photolysis. Therefore, it is a secondary pollutant that results from the reaction between nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released into the atmosphere from natural or anthropogenic activities. The combination of sunlight with non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and NOx (NO + NO2) from biomass burning can also contribute to an increase in tropospheric ozoneconcentration values. The main objective of this research is to study the tropospheric ozoneconcentration through the analysis of some precursors, between 2004 and 2022, over Portugal's mainland. In the present analysis, several predictors were selected, such as Surface Solar Radiation Downwards (SSRD), Fire Radiative Power (FRP), Temperature, Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), and Time of the Year (TOY). The FRP data used has been delivered in near real-time, since 2004, by the EUMETSAT Land Surface Analysis Satellite Applications Facility (LSA-SAF). The SSRD, ozone concentration and the remaining variables were collected from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) reanalysis. The SSRD data is obtained from the ERA5 database, while the other variables are from the EAC4 database. A stepwise regression was applied to selected predictors used to evaluate the influence of each on ozone concentration and two models to estimate mean and maximum ozone tropospheric concentration were proposed. To understand the synoptic atmospheric patterns linked to tropospheric ozone concentration, spatial patterns of geopotential 850 mb, sea mean level pressure, vertical velocity, air temperature, and wind speed were analyzed during days characterized by high and low ozone concentrations. The regression models proposed have been tested using the Monte Carlo procedure and both models show high accuracy and robustness. Results also show a relevant contribution of FRP to mean and maximum ozone concentrations, namely for the composite of days characterized by high ozone concentration. In the present context of climate change and considering the foreseen increase of fire activity and severity, the proposed models revealed to be a useful tool for estimating tropospheric ozone concentration during the recent extreme fire events and also for analyzing the potential impacts of those concentrations on health and ecosystems. Acknowledgements:This study is partially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research project FirEUrisk (Grant Agreement no. 101003890), by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) I.P./MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) – UIDB/50019/2020- IDL, DHEFEUS - 2022.09185.PTDC and by European Investment Funds by FEDER/COMPETE/POCI– Operacional Competitiveness and Internacionalization Programme, under Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006958 and National Funds by FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UID/AGR/04033/2020.