Reflected sunlight highlights the Atlantic Ocean, Buzzards Bay, and Long Island Sound in this photo from the space station.
Published Feb 25, 2013
In addition to posing scientific challenges and opportunities, sunglint makes for some spectacular satellite images.
Published Sep 11, 2014
The Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area is the largest in Texas, with an approximate population of 6 million people in 2005.
Published Jul 25, 2005
It might look like something mysterious is happening in the waters off of Oman, but this dark, sinuous shape has a completely natural explanation.
Published Apr 30, 2017
Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, the Finger Lakes of New York, and numerous other bodies of water are brilliantly lit by sunglint in this astronaut photograph.
Published Jul 22, 2012
The play of sunlight on water gives definition to the jagged coastlines of Sardinia and Corsica.
Published Jun 14, 2020
The combination of sunlight, islands, and wind painted this scene on the surface of the Caribbean Sea.
Published Apr 19, 2014
This detailed astronaut photograph features surface currents illuminated by mirror-like reflections of sunlight off the waters around the Malée Atoll in the Maldive Islands.
Published Mar 1, 2010
New Zealand is seldom photographed from orbit because it is one of the cloudier parts of planet, and because crew sleep periods often occur when the ISS passes over the area.
Published Feb 23, 2015
A photograph of an uninhabited atoll in the Indian Ocean has an almost surreal quality due to varying degrees of sunglint.
Published Apr 18, 2011
Astronauts learn to sense the way sunlight brings out different features in the water and around coastal cities.
Published Apr 27, 2015
Marsh Island, located along the southwestern coastline of Louisiana, is a remnant of an abandoned lobe of the Mississippi River Delta formed approximately 5,000–7,500 years ago. It is composed primarily of organic-rich muds and brackish marsh vegetation, but some peat (layers of vegetation that have partially decomposed while submerged in water) is also present.
Published Dec 3, 2007
A multi-year drought, a growing population, and management choices have put the city’s water supply in a precarious position.
Published Jan 29, 2018
An astronaut photographed the interplay of light and wind on South America’s largest lake.
Published Jan 9, 2017
Sunlight traces the mouth of one of Asia’s great rivers—a major artery for commercial and sediment transport.
Published May 19, 2019
Light reflecting off the waters around Crete indicates a smooth, mirror-like surface.
Published Jul 6, 2017
Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery used the sunglint off the surface of the Mediterranean Sea to reveal biogenic films on the ocean surface (“Biogenic film” refers to a thin layer of biologically-produced film resting on the surface.). The films dampen surface capillary waves, creating brighter and darker reflections, which, in turn, trace the complex surface water movements along the coast. The sunglint also highlights coastal features (jetties, submerged costal areas) near the Port of Suez.
Published Sep 23, 2001
Sunglint shows textures and patterns on the surface of the ocean that would otherwise be invisible.
Published Aug 9, 2013
