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This image or video was catalogued by Johnson Space Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: ISS039-E-11773. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information.

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This file is in the public domain because it was created by the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, of the NASA Johnson Space Center. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (NASA copyright policy page or Conditions of Use of Astronaut Photographs). Photo source: ISS039-E-11773.

Photo's description:

Photographed with a camera equipped with an 80mm lens from the International Space Station, patterns of sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk reveal the dynamics of ocean currents that could otherwise only be seen in sunglint. In this Expedition 39 photo, one can see nearly 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) of the East Sakhalin Current, which is carrying winter ice south toward Japan's Hokkaido Island. The current is marked by the narrow corridor of dense ice that hugs the coast of Russia's Sakhalin Island. As it approaches Hokkaido, the ice patterns show a series of eddies and swirls. The East Sakhalin Current wanes in summer when the Soya Current begins to enter the Sea of Okhotsk. This inrush of summer water starts in April and, according to NASA scientists, probably expresses itself in this image as ice pattern to the east above Hokkaido. The Sakhalin current turns east and transports ice toward the Kuril Island chain. Some ice can spill through gaps in the islands, where it is swept southwest by the Kuril Current (lower right).