Image of the week: Iceberg A23a breaks up
Watching our Earth from space
This week’s image of the week is of the much diminished iceberg A23a, north of the island of South Georgia in the Southern Ocean.
The image was captured by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites on 5 November 2025.
The A23a iceberg originally broke off from the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf in West Antarctica in 1986 and was then stuck on the floor of the Antarctic Ocean for over 30 years, until it started to move northwards.
After running aground off the island of South Georgia in March 2025, the iceberg then began breaking apart north of South Georgia by late August.
Iceberg image
This image was captured by the OLCI instrument on one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites on 5 November 2025.
EUMETSAT operates the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites, in cooperation with ESA, and delivers the marine data on behalf of the European Union.
More info
Visualise Sentinel-3 data on EUMETView or WEkEO
Iceberg A23a through the decades
The iceberg can also be seen from Meteosat-12 on EUMETView (updated every ten minutes)
Visit the OSI SAF for sea ice products
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