SPACEPHOTOS

Internal waves (solitons) can be seen in this near-vertical photograph taken over the central Indian Ocean. Solitons are nonlinear, traveling waves that normally maintain their shape and identity. Ocean solitons (V-Brand waves, named after Vance Brand, the astronaut who discovered them on the Apollo-Soyuz flight in 1975) manifest themselves as large, subsurface, internal waves with little surface expression. This photograph was taken north of the Seychelles Islands near the northern limit of the subsurface Mascarene Ridge upon which the Seychelles are located. Numerous seamounts (submarine mountains) occur in this region. The photograph shows (near center) the solitons being refracted or impeded by a seamount.