The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission shows us a rare, cloud-free view of Iceland captured on 17 May 2025.
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In its remote location in the North Atlantic Ocean, Iceland is the westernmost European nation and one of the most northerly inhabited places on the planet. The island is famous for its scenic landscape, including volcanoes, glaciers, lakes, lava fields, hot springs and more than 4800 km of coastline.
Iceland’s climate makes it an ideal habitat for sparse grassland, extensive bogs and moors, rather than lush forests. It would therefore be difficult to differentiate vegetation and bare ground in a true-colour satellite image.
This false-colour image has been processed using the near-infrared channel of Sentinel-3’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI). It highlights vegetation in shades of red and makes it easier to distinguish between vegetated areas and bare ground or solidified lava fields which appear brownish. Darker or even black areas denote fresher lava flows.
More than 11% of the island is covered by glaciers – more than on the whole of continental Europe. The large, white area on the eastern part of the island is the Vatnajökull National Park, home to the Vatnajökull Glacier. With an area of around 8400 sq km and an average ice thickness of more than 900 m, Vatnajökull is the biggest glacier in Europe.
The white, circular patch in the centre is Hofsjökull, the country’s third largest glacier and its largest active volcano. The elongated white area west of Hofsjökull is Langjökull, Iceland’s second largest ice cap.
Water bodies such as rivers and glacial lakes appear as emerald green shapes scattered around the island. The colour is due to sediment in the water, which then flows into the ocean, dyeing its dark blue waters in hues of green visible along the coasts.
At top-left, light blue swirls are visible in the sea off the coast of Greenland. These are small sea-ice fragments blown by the wind and ocean currents.
This image was captured during an unusual heatwave that hit Iceland from 13-22 May 2025. On 17 May, Sentinel-3 was also able to obtain an accurate image of the land surface temperature, using data from the mission’s Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer instrument.