Suez Canal backup visible from space

Traffic at the entrance to the Suez Canal began to backup soon after the Ever Given, a giant container became wedged in the Egyptian canal. The nearly quarter mile long ship was traveling from China to the Netherlands when it ran around after being caught in a sandstorm that caused low visibility making navigation difficult.

The European Space Agency released images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission from March 21, two days before Ever Given's grounding, and March 25.

Increasing numbers of ships, spaced by about 2 miles, are gathering near the canal entrance while tugboats and other crews work to free the stuck ship. Egyptian authorities say it is unclear when the route will reopen.

The sea surface reflects the radar signal away from the satellite, and makes water appear dark in the image. This contrasts with metal objects like ships in the bay which appear as bright dots in the dark waters according to the esa.

The Sentinel-1 mission is a pair of satellites in a polar orbit which gather images via synthetic-aperture radar, in any weather, day and night.  Images of land are used in forestry and agricultural monitoring.

The mission is contributing to climate change studies by monitoring sea ice over long periods of time. Coastal areas are monitored for environmental hazards like oil spills as well as changes in shipping traffic.

The satellites can also be used in emergency response such as flooding, landslides and earthquakes.