Greenland Ice Sheet: Ice Velocity (2014–2024) | Europe's Sentinel-1 Earth Satellite

Greenland Ice Sheet: Ice Velocity (2014–2024) | Europe's Sentinel-1 Earth Satellite

This map, based on Copernicus Sentinel-1 Earth satellite data, shows the speed ice is moving horizontally on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Sentinel-1’s year-round acquisitions of the ice sheet's marginal zones, along with dedicated winter mapping campaigns that include the interior ice sheet, enable the production of annual ice sheet-wide velocity maps. These maps are derived using offset tracking, a data analysis technique that compares satellite images of the same location at distinct times to ‘track’ ground movement.

This map, based on Copernicus Sentinel-1 data, shows the speed ice is moving horizontally on the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland. Half-way up the western coast of Greenland, it is one of the fastest outlet glaciers in the world with velocities reaching, at times, up to 50 meters or 164 feet per day.

First Image: This map, based on Copernicus Sentinel-1 Earth satellite data, shows the speed ice is moving horizontally on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Sentinel-1’s year-round acquisitions of the ice sheet's marginal zones, along with dedicated winter mapping campaigns that include the interior ice sheet, enable the production of annual ice sheet-wide velocity maps. These maps are derived using offset tracking, a data analysis technique that compares satellite images of the same location at distinct times to ‘track’ ground movement.

The study shows rapid flow of ice, moving at average speeds of up to 15 meters (49 feet) per day, from glaciers and ice sheets at points around the Greenland Ice Sheet. Half-way up the western coast of Greenland, Sermeq Kujalleq (also known as the Jakobshavn Glacier), is one of the fastest outlet glaciers in the world with velocities reaching, at times, up to 50 meters (164 feet) per day. The North-East Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS), is also clearly visible and begins far inland at the ‘ice divide’, shown as a dark blue band of nearly stagnant ice in Greenland’s interior.

Second Image: This map, based on Copernicus Sentinel-1 data, shows the speed ice is moving horizontally on the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland. Half-way up the western coast of Greenland, it is one of the fastest outlet glaciers in the world with velocities reaching, at times, up to 50 m per day.

Sentinel-1’s year-round acquisitions of the ice sheet's marginal zones, along with dedicated winter mapping campaigns that include the interior ice sheet, enable the production of annual ice sheet-wide velocity maps. These maps are derived using offset tracking, a data analysis technique that compares satellite images of the same location at different times to ‘track’ ground movement.

Greenland (called Tartupaluk in Inuktitut and Greenlandic) is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark and is the largest of the kingdom's three constituent parts by land area, the others being Denmark proper and the Faroe Islands. It shares a small 1.2 km border with Canada on Hans Island. Citizens of Greenland are full citizens of Denmark and of the European Union. Greenland is one of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union and is part of the Council of Europe. It is the world's largest island and lies between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Credits: European Space Agency (ESA), (Data source: Wuite, J. et al. 2025).
Release Date: Jan. 8, 2026

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