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
In addition to posing scientific challenges and opportunities, sunglint makes for some spectacular satellite images.
Published Sep 11, 2014
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
Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo presents a complicated surface to interpret. Oil platforms and other infrastructure supporting the oil industry generate oil slicks, heavy ship traffic produces linear ship wakes, and vivid green streaks and swirls are patches of duck weed growth that has thrived on the lake.
Published Sep 6, 2004
An astronaut photographed the interplay of light and wind on South America’s largest lake.
Published Jan 9, 2017
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
Bathed in sunlight reflecting on the water, the Massachusetts coast and islands are the focus of this astronaut photograph.
Published Aug 1, 2011
Astronauts learn to sense the way sunlight brings out different features in the water and around coastal cities.
Published Apr 27, 2015
The play of sunlight on water gives definition to the jagged coastlines of Sardinia and Corsica.
Published Jun 14, 2020
Reflected sunlight highlights the Atlantic Ocean, Buzzards Bay, and Long Island Sound in this photo from the space station.
Published Feb 25, 2013
The combination of sunlight, islands, and wind painted this scene on the surface of the Caribbean Sea.
Published Apr 19, 2014
The world’s deepest lake was shedding some of its ice cover when the space station passed over in April 2014.
Published May 12, 2014
Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle and Space Station have tracked regional environmental changes spanning decades. Lake Chapala, Mexico’s largest lake, serves as one example of an area experiencing significant changes that have been well documented from space. Over the past twenty years, the lake’s water levels have decreased in conjunction with increasing development from the fast-growing city of Guadalajara.
Published Aug 30, 2004
Pyramid Lake, in western Nevada, is a remnant of the ancient and much larger Lake Lahontan that formed during the last Ice Age.
Published Oct 18, 2010
Ongoing drought and diminished snowpack in the Rockies have combined with increasing demands downstream to cause the great reservoir to drop to historically low levels.
Published Aug 1, 2014
In May 2016, the reservoir behind Hoover Dam reached its lowest level since the 1930s.
Published May 27, 2016
Acquired on April 10, 2010, and and March 7, 2009, these natural-color images show changes in a central Australian saltpan, Lake Frome. In 2010, water has seeped into the salt lake, leaving standing water in some areas and muddying much of the ground surface.
Published Apr 14, 2010
Sunlight teases out the patterns on this lake and landscape in Iran.
Published Mar 19, 2018
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
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