Greenland ice flow and annual ice-sheet mass balance
The greenland briefing · fortnightly
Next briefing planned · Subject to review
Published 22 Oct 2026 · Fieldwork: summer 2026 · BAS report: 9 Oct
Robots measure melting at Greenland’s glacier face.
19hoursMeasurements at the glacier faceSummer 2026 · BAS GIANT expedition
During summer 2026, a BAS-led team aboard RRS Sir David Attenborough studied Sorgenfri Gletsjer and its fjord in East Greenland. A sensor placed in the glacier face collected measurements for 19 hours, alongside surveys by underwater robots. Researchers will use the observations to improve models of glacier melting and freshwater movement into the Atlantic. BAS reported the expedition on 9 October; the report does not give a new ice-sheet-wide melt estimate.
Greenland in motion.
Follow the ice from the interior to the glaciers at the coast. The lines trace flow direction; colour shows how quickly the surface moves.
Loading the measured ice flow…
Lines trace measured ice-flow direction; colour shows surface speed in metres per year equivalent, not ice loss.
Colour indicates speed, not melt or ice loss. Pale ice without lines can indicate slow movement, uncertain direction or missing measurements.
Drag to explore · use + / − to zoom · select the ice for a measured reading.
GLACIER HISTORY
How the latest measured speed compares with the past
Compare ice speed at a fixed inland area with late-summer observations in earlier years. Shading shows the 2017–2025 range; bars show source error.
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Observation dates & values
| Year | Observation period | Speed (m/year equivalent) | Source error (± m/year) |
|---|
These figures measure movement at the reference area, not how much ice the glacier has lost.
GREENLAND’S ICE SHEET
Is Greenland gaining or losing ice?
How much ice the whole Greenland ice sheet gained or lost during the selected September–August year.
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A billion tonnes is one gigatonne (Gt). Surface gains minus glacier discharge and basal loss give the overall balance. These are whole-ice-sheet estimates, not local melt measurements.
Melt, thickness and change
The percentage of the ice-sheet surface experiencing melt. Polar Portal currently reports an issue producing its daily melt maps; no current hotspot layer is shown here.
Polar Portal ↗Satellite estimates show where the surface is lowering or rising, in metres per year. This is separate from melting and is not yet a layer on this map.
Copernicus measurements ↗BedMachine Greenland v6 provides estimated thickness on a 150 m grid. It is a reference assembled from multiple years, not today’s thickness or a measure of recent loss. This layer is not yet shown.
BedMachine Greenland ↗The map measures ice motion during its stated observation period. The annual figures above estimate how much mass the whole ice sheet gained or lost. A fast glacier is not, by itself, a percentage-loss measurement.
Map sources & reading the flow
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Flow lines are derived from measured velocity vectors, smoothed spatially for legibility. They are not observed tracks of individual ice particles. The generalized ice outline is reference geography, not a current glacier front. Missing observations remain blank; no flow is invented to fill gaps.
Ice velocity maps were produced as part of the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE) using Copernicus Sentinel-1 SAR images distributed by ESA, and were provided by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS).
Solgaard & Kusk · PROMICE Edition 5 · CC BY 4.0 ↗ · Scientific method ↗ · Data & Methods ↗