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A View from Space: Hawaiian Islands

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sunglint
Sunglint surrouncs half of the Hawaiian Islands. (Image credit: NASA.)

From Nasa's Earth Observatory:

A silver swath of sunglint surrounds half of the Hawaiian islands in this true-color Terra MODIS image acquired on May 27, 2003. Sunglint reveals turbulence in the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean. If the surface of the water was as smooth as a perfect mirror, we would see the circle of the Sun as a perfect reflection. But because the surface of the water is ruffled with waves, each wave acts like a mirror and the Sun’s reflection gets softened into a broader silver swath, called the sunglint region.

From lower right to upper left, the “Big Island” (Hawaii), Maui, Kahoolawe, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau islands all make up the state of Hawaii, which lies more than 2,000 miles from any other part of the United States. The small red dot on the Big Island’s southeastern side marks a hot spot on Kilauea Volcano’s southern flank. Kilauea has been erupting almost continuously since January 1983, and is one of the world’s best studied volcanoes.

Live Science Staff
Live Science Staff
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