True-colour composite from the MODIS instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite of hurricanes Kilo (left), Ignacio (centre) and Jimena (right) on 29 August 2015. All three were category-4 hurricanes and spanned the central and eastern Pacific basins. The bright bands in the images are sunglint where solar radiation from the Sun has reflected from Earth back to the satellite sensor. The Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite, expected to be launched in late 2015, will provide images such as these at 300 m resolution and in 21 bands from its Ocean and Land Colour Imager along with thermal infrared images from its Sea and Land Temperature Radiometer.