In July 2016, phytoplankton in the Barents Sea turned the surface waters milky blue.
Published Jul 6, 2016
Acquired August 24, 2012, this natural-color image shows a profusion of peacock hues created by a phytoplankton bloom in the Barents Sea.
Published Sep 25, 2012
MODIS caught a clear view of an explosion of phytoplankton—a rare treat since the Barents Sea is cloud-covered roughly 80 percent of the summer.
Published Aug 18, 2011
Satellite imagers captured the transition from one blooming phytoplankton genus to another in the Barents Sea in the summer of 2014.
Published Aug 10, 2014
Phytoplankton and blue-green algae blooms off of Scandinavia seem to be particularly intense this summer.
Published Jul 23, 2018
The waters off of the Alaskan coast usually come alive each spring with colorful swirls of phytoplankton.
Published Jul 14, 2018
Phytoplankton are usually most abundant in this area when spring melting and runoff freshen the water and add nutrients just as sunlight is increasing.
Published May 8, 2018
Changing conditions in the waters near Alaska promotes late summer phytoplankton growth.
Published Sep 19, 2014
Phytoplankton and sediment produced a vivid display in this relatively shallow sea between Great Britain and northern Europe.
Published Apr 9, 2020
Unusually clear skies and persistent, unseasonable heat may have set the stage for large and persistent blooms of phytoplankton in the waters around England.
Published Jun 26, 2020
Freshened surface water and abundant nutrients lead to an explosion of algae in the inland sea.
Published May 31, 2015
Phytoplankton swirled across the Arabian Sea on February 18, 2010, drawn into thin green ribbons by turbulent eddies.
Published Mar 8, 2010
Early summer water conditions provide fertile territory for phytoplankton blooms.
Published Jul 5, 2015
Acquired September 10, 2011, this natural-color image shows a persistent phytoplankton bloom in the Barents Sea.
Published Sep 15, 2011
Nearly every summer, phytoplankton trace the sea’s currents, eddies, and flows.
Published Aug 19, 2020
This image of the summer phytoplankton bloom in the Barents Sea off the northwesternmost corner of Russia was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on August 19, 2009. The milky-blue color that dominates the bloom suggests that it contains large numbers of phytoplankton called coccolithophores.
Published Aug 22, 2009
Phytoplankton are tiny plant-like organisms that are the foundation of the ocean food web. Like plants, they contain chlorophyll and other pigments that they use to harvest sunlight for photosynthesis. In northern waters, these organisms are starved for sunlight much of the year, but during the summer months, they explode in colorful blooms such as this one.
Published Aug 19, 2008
Phytoplankton and stirred up sediments deliver a splash of spring color to the Black Sea.
Published May 13, 2016
In May 2020, a vivid phytoplankton bloom colored the surface waters of the country’s second-longest fjord.
Published Jun 10, 2020
