June 8, 2022 - Blooms off the East Coast of the United States
Blooms
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Swirls of color lingered in the Atlantic Ocean off the Mid-Atlantic and
Northeastern United States through early June 2022. The Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra
satellite acquired a true-color image of the scene on June 6.
Several swaths of ocean color are visible in this image. A long,
sinuous, cloudy-appearing length of color stretches in the deep blue
Atlantic parallel to the coast of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and
New York. A fanciful, brighter jewel-toned swirl sits south of
Massachusetts while a larger swirl colors the Gulf of Maine, reaching
from east of Massachusetts north to Maine.
These colors are produced by massive colonies of phytoplankton, which
are microscopic plant-like organisms that live in these waters
year-round in small numbers. When conditions are favorable — correct
water temperature, daylight length, and nutrient levels—phytoplankton
can reproduce explosively, creating large blooms that can easily be
viewed from space.
A silver-toned, mirror-like tint overlies some of the bloom in the Gulf
of Maine and stretches south and westward over the open Atlantic Ocean.
This gleam comes from an optic phenomenon known as “sunglint”. Sunglint
occurs when sunlight reflects off the surface of water at the same
angle that a satellite sensor views it. The result is a mirror-like
reflection of sunlight off the water and back at the satellite sensor.
Phytoplankton blooms are common in most of the world’s oceans and occur
regularly in the Atlantic Ocean off of the East Coast of the United
States in spring and summer. The color, extent of the bloom, and
location all change with time, currents, and water conditions. Even the
species of phytoplankton play a role—different species may lend
different colors to the bloom.
On May 17, 2022, NASA’s Earth Observatory published an image of
phytoplankton blooming along the Mid-Atlantic region that was acquired
that same day by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)
instrument on the NOAA-20 satellite. At that time, the bloom was more
intensely colored and larger than on June 6. The publication gives an
excellent discussion of the cause of this particular bloom, as well as
provides a discussion—and a video—of the importance of phytoplankton as
a primary fuel to life in the ocean. To view the Earth Observatory
article, click here.
Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 6/6/2022
Resolutions: 1km (991.9 KB), 500m (2.7 MB), 250m (1.8 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-06-08
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