This true-color image captures a Ross Sea phytoplankton bloom on January 22, 2011, as viewed by the MODIS instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite.
Published Jan 29, 2011
MODIS captured two views of the Ross Sea in December 2005. Although the true-color view showed a nearly uniform ocean color, the view of chlorophyll concentration revealed a wide range of productivity.
Published Mar 18, 2009
In July 2016, phytoplankton in the Barents Sea turned the surface waters milky blue.
Published Jul 6, 2016
The northern and western highlands of Scotland were still winter-brown and even dusted with snow in places, but the waters of the North Sea were blooming with phytoplankton on May 8, 2008, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the region and captured this image. The tiny, plant-like organisms swirled in the waters off the country’s east coast, coloring the shallow coastal waters shades of bright blue and green.
Published May 13, 2008
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
It may look like someone dyed the water green for St. Patrick’s Day, but the green hue visible off the coast of Antarctica is entirely natural.
Published Mar 9, 2017
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
This image shows a colorful bloom of phytoplankton in the Black Sea on June 4, 2008, along the southern coast near the Turkish cities of Sinop and Samsun. The natural-color image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. Loops and swirls of blooming phytoplankton follow the coastline, while farther out in the open waters (upper right), the blooms become more spread out. The greenish plumes hugging the coast from Sinop westward to just beyond Samsun may be river plumes. River plumes can contain nutrients that stimulate phytoplankton blooms, but they may also contain sediment and organic matter that can color the water.
Published Jun 10, 2008
Freshened surface water and abundant nutrients lead to an explosion of algae in the inland sea.
Published May 31, 2015
Phytoplankton and stirred up sediments deliver a splash of spring color to the Black Sea.
Published May 13, 2016
Phytoplankton swirled across the Arabian Sea on February 18, 2010, drawn into thin green ribbons by turbulent eddies.
Published Mar 8, 2010
