At sunrise, sunlight travels through a thicker layer of atmosphere, creating the warm golden tones we see early in the morning. When this light passes through the face of a breaking wave, it bends and scatters through the water, causing the wave to glow with deep emerald colours.
For a brief moment, the ocean becomes a moving prism of light.
In the video below, photographer Terence Pieters captures this fleeting phenomenon from inside the ocean.
This phenomenon occurs when the first light of sunrise bends and scatters through the curved surface of a wave, creating the glowing emerald light often seen inside breaking waves.