NASA MODIS Image of the Day: June 8, 2007 – Phytoplankton Blooms Off Ireland
Swirling clouds of blue and green lit the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland on June 4, 2007, when the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image.
The ocean is normally dark in true-color, photo-like satellite images such as this one, but phytoplankton bloom are giving the water brilliant blue and green hues.
Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that grow in the sunlit surface waters of the ocean. When enough of the plants grow in one place, the bloom can be seen from space. Aside from coloring ocean waters, phytoplankton play a large role in sustaining ocean ecosystems and in global climate. The tiny plants are the base of the marine food chain, and places where blooms are frequent tend to support a thriving marine population. Since the plants need nutrients like iron to grow, fertile waters are often near a continental shelf in areas where cool water from the ocean’s depths pushes to the surface. This upwelling water carries with it nutrients that had settled to the ocean floor, and thus it can sustain large phytoplankton blooms.
