File:Iceland (MODIS 2020-05-03).jpg

English: On April 28, 2020, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of a spring day in Iceland.

Roughly the size of the state of Kentucky, the beautiful island nation sits between the Greenland Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. The closest landmass is Greenland, which sits 180 mi (190 km) off Iceland’s northwestern coast. The distance to Scotland measures about 497 mi (800 km) and Norway sit about 559 mi (900 km) away.

True to its name, Iceland remains covered in a white blanket of snow and ice as springtime comes to the island. Low layers of clouds float over the Greenland Sea (left) and the Atlantic Ocean (bottom). Iceland’s southern, low-lying coastlines are greyish-tan, while the rest of the island remains pristine white. The harsh climate that might be expected based on the island’s closeness to the Arctic Circle is softened by the tail end of the Gulf Stream Current, which flows up through the Atlantic Ocean bringing heat from the tropics. Unlike its neighbor Greenland, large portions of Iceland shake off their wintry cover each year. But between the lava fields, cold deserts, and the tundra that dominates the northern parts of the island, only about 20-25 percent of the island is habitable, mostly along the south and eastern coasts.