The retreat of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland

Iceland’s glaciers are among the most prominent in Europe and play an important role in regulating freshwater resources and sea level contribution. In recent decades, they have shown sustained retreat and thinning, reflecting rising air temperatures and changing precipitation patterns associated with climate change, trends that are closely monitored using satellite observations.

This image, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 11 November 2025, shows Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, located in south-eastern Iceland, flowing from the Vatnajökull ice cap into the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon. The red line marks the glacier’s terminus extent in 1990, while the yellow line indicates its extent in 2016. The blue line indicates the current extent of the glacier. Over the past 25 years, the glacier terminus has retreated by 6 km.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery plays a crucial role in monitoring and preserving our planet’s mountain regions, even in remote areas such as the poles.