Astronaut Don Pettit captured from ISS the Panama Canal connecting Pacific and Atlantic Ocean with sunglint.
The Panama Canal is an artificial 82km waterway (91-200m wide) in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade. France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, in 1999, the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government. It is now managed and operated by the government-owned Panama Canal Authority. The new locks opened for commercial traffic on June 26, 2016. After the construction of the new locks, in addition to the already existing ones, to date the ship with the largest dimensions transiting the “Panama Canal new sideway”, had the following dimensions: 366.47m in length, 48.23m in width and 15m draft.
Sunglint is a phenomenon that occurs when sunlight reflects off the surface of the ocean at the same angle that a satellite or other sensor is viewing the surface.
The local scenery on the ground is as follows.
Reference: Don Pettit’s Tweet
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