This map, based on Copernicus Sentinel-1 data, shows the speed at which ice is moving horizontally on the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland. Halfway up the western coast of Greenland, it’s one of the fastest outlet glaciers in the world, with velocities reaching, at times, up to 50 meters per day.
Sentinel-1’s year-round acquisitions of the ice sheet’s marginal zones, along with dedicated winter mapping campaigns that include the interior ice sheet, enable the production of annual ice sheet-wide velocity maps. These maps are derived using offset tracking, a data analysis technique that compares satellite images of the same location at different times to “track” ground movement.
Image Credit: ESA (Data source: Wuite, J. et al. 2025)
