07/01/2026
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The extent and pace of ice transferring off the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica into the ocean – an essential dynamic for local weather and sea-rise modelling – has been captured over a 10-year interval by satellites from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.
The mission’s observations now span a decade, beginning in 2014, and supply the primary steady, high-resolution report of the ice-flow velocities throughout the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets.
This long-term dataset, revealed as a study in Distant Sensing of Setting journal, is predicated on superior processing of radar knowledge from Sentinel-1’s artificial aperture radar (SAR) instrument. The examine is a part of a set of educational papers curated by ESA to mark the 10-year anniversary of the Sentinel-1 mission. The special issue underlines the significance of long-term and high-resolution datasets for a lot of purposes, together with monitoring the modifications in ice sheets in Greenland and the Antarctic.
Ice velocity on Antarctica
The information visualisation of Antarctica (see picture on the left) reveals particulars of ice flows transferring at speeds between 1 m and 15 m per day. The Sentinel-1 knowledge is averaged over the interval 2014–2024. Areas proven on the map embody the Antarctic Peninsula and Alexander Island, in addition to giant elements of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and East Antarctic Ice Sheet. A lot of the coastal areas have been captured at both six or 12-day intervals.
On the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (on the left of the picture), the Pine Island Glacier is clearly seen under the Antarctic Peninsula. Over the interval of the examine, the rate of ice move on the glacier’s grounding line – the purpose the place grounded ice detaches from the bedrock beneath it and turns into a floating ice shelf – elevated constantly from roughly 10.6 m per day to 12.7 m per day. Different close by glaciers additionally confirmed elevated ice move. These modifications are brought on by a spread of things together with ocean-induced thinning of the floating ice cabinets mixed with a retreat of the grounding line.
Greenland’s ice flows
The study shows the rapid flow of ice, moving at average speeds of up to 15 m per day, from glaciers and ice sheets at points around the Greenland Ice Sheet (see image on the right). 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, as much as 50 m per day (see a zoomed-in map below).
The North-East Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS), is also clearly visible on the Greenland Ice Sheet and begins far inland at the ‘ice divide’, shown as a dark blue band of nearly stagnant ice in Greenland’s interior.
The dataset offers unprecedented spatial detail, with resolution up to 200–250 m, as well as timeframes for tracking movement ranging from less than a week to more than a decade.
Mapping the effects of climate change
Ice velocity is a key parameter in measuring the effects of climate change. The speed at which glaciers and ice sheets move tells us the rate at which they discharge ice and water into the sea, feeding into estimations on future sea-level rise. Data on ice velocity also help to keep track of the break-up of ice sheets, such as calving events or damage to the ice sheets.
Strengthening the ability to monitor ice dynamics is vital for refining predictions of future changes in ice sheets and glaciers, their impact on sea-level rise, and their broader effects on the climate.
Lead-author of the study, Jan Wuite, of ENVEO IT, noted the impact made by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission to monitoring ice flow movements. He said, “Before the launch of Sentinel-1, the absence of consistent SAR observations over polar glaciers and ice sheets posed a major barrier to long-term climate records. Today, the resulting velocity maps offer an extraordinary view of ice-sheet dynamics, providing a reliable and essential data record for understanding polar regions in a rapidly changing global climate.”
The annual ice velocity products for Greenland and Antarctica are operationally generated within the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) for the cryosphere area, which is led by ENVEO. Joaquín Muñoz Sabater, the accountable scientist on the European Centre for Medium-Vary Climate Forecasts (ECMWF) for the C3S cryosphere service, acknowledged, “The ice velocity time collection for Antarctica and Greenland are an integral part of the C3S Cryosphere Service and a key contribution to monitoring the impacts of worldwide warming in a number of the world’s most delicate areas.”
Step change in polar remark
Since its first satellite tv for pc was launched in 2014, the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission has offered a step change within the capabilities of polar satellite tv for pc Earth remark. Its 12-m-long superior SAR instrument works in C-band. This makes it a dependable device for buying high-resolution imagery for steady monitoring and emergency response efforts. It is ready to seize knowledge by cloud cowl, smoke and through lack of daylight
Nuno Miranda, ESA’s Sentinel-1 Mission Supervisor, defined, “Earlier than Sentinel-1, producing such outcomes required combining knowledge from a number of sensors over a number of years. With Sentinel-1, these outcomes are actually produced yearly and, due to advances in science, even month-to-month. This breakthrough allows monitoring of those distant areas with unprecedented temporal decision. It’s a vital device as 2025 marks one other record-breaking yr of Arctic warming, the place speedy modifications demand nearer and extra frequent remark.”
The mission has enabled, for the primary time, the technology of large-scale, dense and steady time collection of polar ice velocity for local weather analysis. The mission has additionally enabled the appliance of Interferometry SAR (InSAR) for ice velocity retrieval on bigger scales than earlier than. It supplies a scientific acquisition technique for the polar areas, which ensures steady protection of the principle sectors of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, in addition to of different ice lots.
With the launch of the mission’s fourth satellite tv for pc – Sentinel-1D – on the finish of 2025, the mission’s capability to offer common acquisitions each six days or much less over Greenland and Antarctica is restored. This reinstates and even enhances the capabilities that existed earlier than the breakdown of Sentinel-1B.
Utilizing the intensive Sentinel-1 SAR archive, the authors of the examine developed algorithms to generate detailed maps and dense time collection of glacier and ice sheet velocity now spanning greater than 10 years. The examine’s outcomes present Sentinel-1’s distinctive potential to comprehensively monitor move velocities on glaciers and ice sheets, offering essential knowledge for ice dynamics and local weather modelling
Why does it matter?
The rise of worldwide sea ranges depends upon two fundamental contributing elements, in keeping with data from the World Meteorological Group. These two elements are the growth of warming water within the oceans and meltwater from ice on land. The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are the principle sources of meltwater from ice on land; collectively they maintain sufficient ice to boost international sea ranges catastrophically in the event that they have been to soften solely. Present ice mass loss is already affecting coastal areas worldwide, together with low-lying areas susceptible to flooding and storm surges.
This examine underscores how satellites are important to understanding and forecasting the evolving threat from ice sheet loss. It’s the first time that scientists have established a constant, continent-wide baseline of how the ice of Greenland and Antarctica strikes underneath latest situations. That baseline will assist detect future acceleration, or any deceleration, of ice move.
Waiting for collaboration
In future, knowledge from Sentinel-1 shall be used with SAR knowledge from the upcoming Copernicus growth mission ROSE-L. It will guarantee systematic, steady acquisitions over Greenland and Antarctica effectively into the longer term.
CEO of ENVEO IT, Thomas Nagler, additionally a co-author on the examine, added, “Sentinel-1 revolutionised our view of polar ice sheets by offering steady, weather-independent radar measurements that reveal ice movement in unprecedented element, reworking ice move from a sparse snapshot right into a dynamic, measurable course of. Constructing on this legacy, the mixing of Sentinel-1 with the upcoming ROSE-L mission will additional enhance ice-flow observations, enabling extra correct and steady monitoring of ice-sheet dynamics.”
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