On 24 January heavy snowfall fell in northwest Algeria, on the peaks of the Bèchar Province, on the edge of the Sahara Desert. This image, acquired on 25 January 2023 by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites, shows the snow-capped peaks and the town of Benzireg. Snowfalls are very rare in the Sahara because of the high temperatures, and...

After an unusually warm start of the winter season characterised by the lack of significant snowfall, in the past few days a massive snowstorm covered the peaks of central and southern Italy with snow. Several municipalities in inland Italian have been heavily affected, and local schools have been closed for a few days in order to prevent...

How is Copernicus helping the EU with its sustainable finance policy in the context of the EU Green Deal and the wider climate crisis?

On 23 January, a massive iceberg, of 1,550 km2 (close to the size of the island of Gran Canaria or of Greater London), has calved from the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica. This image was acquired on 20 and 24 January by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites and shows the newly formed iceberg, named Chasm1, floating in the Weddell Sea....

A recent study published by the Nature journal has revealed that temperatures in Greenland have been higher in recent decades than in any other period in the past 1,000 years. The study analysed data from ice cores and reconstructed temperatures in Greenland going back to 1,000 AD. Results indicate that current temperatures are on average 1.5°C...