Ragnar Heiðar Þrastarson
@ragnarheidar.bsky.social
450 followers 220 following 46 posts
Mapmaker, mountaineer and GIS Coordinator of the Icelandic Met Office. Open Source Geospatial all the way! Currently sponsoring: QGIS | OSGeo | Even Rouault
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ragnarheidar.bsky.social
Very excited to be part of MapTiler Connect 2025 🤩

We at The Icelandic Met Office together with our friends at Origo have been busy building lots of maps with MapTiler 🗺️

Registration is open for online attendance ✔️
maptiler.bsky.social
We’re proud to announce Ragnar Heiðar Þrastarson - @ragnarheidar.bsky.social - as one of our panelists 🌍
As GIS Coordinator at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, he’s led the development of key map-based products.
Don’t miss him at MapTiler Connect 2025!
📅 Register now: maptiler.link/3VxcxNP
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
Before and after #flood
A pair of #Sentinel2 satellite images acquired on the 20th of August and 8th of September showing the lake where a glacial outburst flood aka #GLOF aka #Jökulhlaup occurred at the margin of #Langjökull glacier.
Check previous post for a short video from the field.
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
Throughout #Iceland the Icelandic Met Office operates small web cameras. These are co-located with other equipment like #GNSS and #Seismic stations. They are our eyes in the field. Some capture stunning #nofilter 24h time-lapse like this one looking West towards our old friend #Eyjafjallajokull
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
A nice #Landsat brightness temperature image from last night (ascending path). Data clipped to a union of all 9 lava outlines with the latest one on the right. Calculated from band 10 (level 1). Hotspots by the main crater and the thickest part of the lava field.

#NASA #USGS #Svartsengi #eruption
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
A few days ago, we had a glacial outburst flood AKA Jökulhlaup. The water originated from an ice dammed lake by Langjökull glacier. The flood did not cause any issues downstream, but its mechanics are interesting since water flows both beneath and on top of the glacier.
A short vid from the field 👇
Hafrafellslón - jökulhlaup í ágúst 2025
YouTube video by Ragnar Heiðar Þrastarson
youtu.be
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
In May #Iceland was hit by a significant #heatwave

Several stations exceeded 20°C for 10 consecutive days 🔥

New record for maximum May temperature was set on the 15th, 26.6°C 🌡️

This is #EUMETSAT #MTG satellite images for those 10 days at 10 min interval (geo color image) 🛰️

More info in comment👇🏻
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
Natural color image for the same scenes (bands 2, 3 and 4). Note the clouds/fog and how they affect the brightness temperature.
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
Ascending orbits for visual spectrum #satellite images are usually not of interest for most (nighttime images). But for high latitudes in early summer, they can give great results 😍

This is #Landsat9 brightness temperature from band 10 at 22:30 UTC last night over #Iceland

Darker is colder 🌡️
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
More stunning acquisitions by #sentinel3 of #Iceland from today. The last couple of days have been exceptionally warm with many stations showing more than 20°C.
Satellite image of Iceland
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
This spectacular image of #Iceland was acquired by #Sentinel3 last Saturday. Perfect conditions to hike on top of #Snæfellsjökull glacier with some friends.

The latter part of winter was warm and light in terms of snowfall. The April mean temperature was also one of the hottest on record (4/180).
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
Yes, these are all available from the Natural Science Institute of Iceland #GeoServer that will deliver these in many formats, including #KML

Go to gis.natt.is/geoserver/web
-> Layer Preview
-> Search for "goslok"
-> Hit KML link

Enjoy #free #open #data (CC BY 4.0)
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
And there we have it. The 8th eruption from the #Svartsengi magma reservoir. By far the smallest one in terms of eruption time, area and volume.

Updated lava comparison map that also includes the #Fagradalsfjall eruptions.

#Iceland #QGIS #eruption
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
On helicopter duty this morning 🌋

Collaborative effort 🤝

- Veðurstofa Íslands - Icelandic Met Office
- Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland
- Icelandic Coast Guard
- Iceland Civil Protection

#eruption #iceland #grindavik
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
Hello Sentinel-1C 👋🏻🛰️

We have a new #Sentinle1 #SAR satellite delivering data. 1C has joined 1A in orbit and data is now available. Here is an IW mode image from this morning of #Iceland - VV polarization with logarithmic scaling (good for surface roughness). Images from #Copernicus Browser 🙏🏻😍
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
Some field work today with Civil Protection near #Grindavik and #Svartsengi

Looking at lava barriers and cleaning some webcam lens covers. Trying to be as prepared as possible for the next one 🌋
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
There are so many nice #QGIS plugins available. Check out Globe Builder. Need an orthographic projection view of your data? Done!

These are the different weather forecast models used by The Icelandic Met Office + subsets. IG and DINI are jointly operated with Denmark, Ireland and Netherlands 🤝🏻
A globe map showing areas around Iceland A map showing areas around Iceland
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
A nice von Kármán vortex street south of Jan Mayen today 😍🌀🌪️

Image acquired by #Sentinel3

👉🏻 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1...
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
Hello Sentinel-2C 👋🛰️

Images from the recently launched @esa.int third #Sentinel2 satellite are now available. Some winter wonderland images from #Iceland acquired yesterday over the Northeastern highlands.

📸 Lake Mývatn
📸 Jöklusá á Fjöllum glacier river
📸 Askja volcanic caldera & lake
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
Very excited to announce early public beta of our new website at The Icelandic Met Office. @maptiler.bsky.social plays a key role in delivering maps for the new site. The weather charts use their Engine + Cloud + Weather SDK with the front-end handled by our friends at #Origo -> gottvedur.is
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
During volcanic eruptions in #Iceland the scientific community relies on The Icelandic Coast Guard for support during the first phase of events. Their fleet includes a #Bombardier Dash-8 turboprop equipped with a side-looking radar + camera systems. Today we did some training looking at volcanoes.
Öræfajökull Eyjafjallajökull Glacier cauldron
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
Hi #GISchat 📢

Tomorrow I´ll be leading a #QGIS course for my Met Office coworkers, first group out of 3!

Do you have any fun geometry generators for my course? I have a few practical examples but need some funny ones to show that there are no limits (except your imagination).
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
I should perhaps decrease my coffee consumption ☕
Here are the same images with the correct timestamp!
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
More details in English on the recent #earthquake activity on the #Snæfellsnes peninsula. Data suggests magma intrusion at a considerable depth. No deformation has been observed.

en.vedur.is/about-imo/ne...
Magmatic intrusion at considerable depth beneath Grjótárvatn likely | News | Icelandic Meteorological office
en.vedur.is
ragnarheidar.bsky.social
EDIT: date on image should be 2025-01-08!