Captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on June 17, 2026, this image highlights Great Bear Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories, the largest lake entirely within Canada and one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes. The surrounding boreal forest, islands and intricate shoreline create a vivid natural mosaic visible from orbit.
The presence of lake ice can be monitored effectively by imaging sensors and standard satellite observations. In this false-color image, three specific bands from Copernicus Sentinel-2’s visible and infrared channels have been used to process the image. Each channel has been assigned a color to enhance the contrasts between different surfaces. This band combination is particularly suitable for monitoring ice melt, water bodies and vegetation health.
A massive sheet of sea ice covering most of the lake can be seen in shades ranging from bright blue to cyan, depending on the ice thickness. This range of colors is due to ice and snow having a higher reflectance in the visible part of the spectrum, here assigned to blue.
Image Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2026), processed by ESA
