With the arrival of summer, the Greenland Ice Sheet has adopted its ‘summer look,’ revealing a few odd shapes and other curiosities.
Earlier this year, as spring began to warm Greenland, satellite images of the “Land of Ice and Snow” revealed something striking: several areas on the otherwise frozen landscape appeared with a rich blue coloration, almost reminiscent of sapphires and other precious stones.
Within a few weeks, these areas became even more appealing to the eye as summer temperatures revealed even more of these striking features, along with a few surprises.
Images obtained with the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on NASA’s Landsat 9 satellite showed several odd circular formations, and even a smiley face, all of which are he result of natural processes that occur annually as the Greenland Ice Sheet begins to lose a bit of its wintertime chill.
“The colorful seasonal phenomenon is due to meltwater from snow and ice, which pools atop the ice sheet in places each melt season,” wrote Kathryn Hansen in a post at NASA’s Earth Observatory website. These melt ponds were spotted in imagery obtained on July 2, 2025, as Landsat 9 passed over a portion of the landscape between Greenland’s Nordenskiöld and Jakobshavn Glaciers.
In several of the images, shapes reminiscent of tadpoles or musical notes appear (see below), as meltwater runoff produces the characteristic “tails” on these icy formations:
In one instance, a “smiley face” also makes an appearance, produced from the unique shapes created by natural melting processes, as shown below:
In other portions of the imagery, some regions appear darker because of impurities captured within the ice, likely caused by the presence of ash, dust, or black carbon-rich deposits that settled on the landscape.
This darker coloration is believed to contribute to the speed at which ice melts each spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, as it lowers the reflectivity (albedo) of the surrounding ice, allowing more solar radiation to be absorbed during warmer weather months.
These unique areas are of interest to scientists for much more than the vivid colors and strange shapes they sometimes produce. Melt ponds, like those seen in the July Landsat 9 images, also help researchers determine how the ice moves and the influence of this movement on the widening of crevasses that open in the ice as portions of it thaw.
“Meltwater that drains through these cracks to the base of the ice can act as a lubricant between the ice sheet and bedrock,” Hansen explained, which can intermittently speed the passage of ice flows as they make their way toward the ocean.
Another important piece of information that these melt ponds can provide is a gauge for the strength of the annual Greenland melts. Typically occurring between May and September each year, data obtained this year indicates a slightly higher than average melt rate, especially in instances recorded along the western portion of the ice sheet.
According to data obtained by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the two strongest melt surges occurred between May and June. During last year’s melt season, instances were detected that showed the annual melt phenomena had seemingly begun occurring much farther from Greenland’s shores than is typically seen.
“Time will tell if summer melting will migrate even farther inland, as it did throughout July 2024,” Hansen wrote.
Additional information about NASA’s Landsat 9 can be found on NASA’s official page for the satellite and its mission, while additional imagery it collects is periodically made available at NASA’s Earth Observatory website.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.