Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission has captured a dramatic change at Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland, where a 76 sq km section of the glacier’s floating ice tongue broke away on 4 August 2026.
The event marks the glacier’s largest loss of floating ice since 2012 and the most significant calving event in the Arctic since 2020 – revealing once again how rapidly Earth’s polar landscapes can change.