Image of the week: Icelandic ice caps for World Glacier Day

Watching our Earth from space

This week’s Image of the Week features ice caps in southern Iceland to celebrate World Glacier Day on 21 March 2026. The image was captured on 13 August 2025 by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites.

Last Updated

18 March 2026

Published on

18 March 2026

The large white expanse on the right side of the image is Vatnajökull, the largest ice cap in Iceland (and Europe by volume). You can see several of its "outlet glaciers" heading towards the coast.

Other large ice caps that are visible include Hofsjökull and Langjökullin the centreand towards the bottom of the image Mýrdalsjökull and Eyjafjallajökull are also visible.

Glaciers in most parts of the world are losing mass as global temperatures rise in response to increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. This decline is also reflected in Iceland, where glaciers are estimated to have lost approximately 16% of their mass since 1900 and almost half of this loss has occurred since 1994/5.

World Glacier Day

The World Day for Glaciers, observed every year on 21 March, was proclaimed by the United Nations to raise global awareness of the importance of glaciers and the urgent need to protect them.

The day provides a global platform to communicate about the role that glaciers play in the Earth’s climate system, freshwater availability, ecosystems, and human livelihoods.

More info

IPCC Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (2019)

World Glacier Monitoring Service

Decade of action for Cryospheric Sciences (2025-2034)

Visualise Sentinel-3 data on EUMETView or WEkEO

Access sea ice data in EUMETSAT’s User Portal

Visualise daily Arctic sea ice extent

State of the Arctic https://climate.copernicus.eu/esotc/2024/arctic-ocean

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