New satellite images snapped by the European Space Agency show Burning Man as seen from space.
The photos were taken as part of the agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, which flew over the festival site in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert last month, and features a birds-eye view of Black Rock City. The temporary city made up of camper vans, RVs, and tents sheltered over 70,000 festivalgoers when Burning Man returned from August 25 to September 7.
At the center of the circular settlement is a large wooden effigy known as “the Man,” which is symbolically burned on the final day of the week-long event in Northwestern Nevada, an arid region known for its lava beds and alkali salt flats.
The satellite that captured the image is one of two Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites launched since 2015. Both identical satellites fly in the same orbit but 180 degrees apart, allowing them to study and capture imagery of all of the earth’s land and coastal waters every five days. A third satellite, Sentinel-2C, was launched on September 3.
The photo, taken on the second day of Burning Man, August 26, captured the festival in a second straight year of complications. For the first time since 2011, tickets to Burning Man were available just days before its start, prompting organizers to open sales to the general public with no need for pre-registration only three weeks before. Tragedy also struck on the first day of the festival when a 39-year-old woman died after she was found unresponsive and could not be revived by Burning Man’s emergency medical team.
Last year, Burning Man was delayed due to intense rains that left the ordinarily dry playa flooded and muddy, and later stranded tens of thousands of burners at the event’s conclusion. Anti-capitalist climate protesters also organized a blockade on the main route to the festival, causing further delays.
Featured image from the European Space Agency. Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2024), processed by ESA.
