Phytoplankton Around the Galapagos Island (May 1998)

  • Credit

    NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, The SeaWiFS Project and ORBIMAGE, Scientific Visualization Studio. NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with ORBIMAGE (http://www.orbimage.com).

SeaWIFS Phytoplankton around the Galapagos Islands in May 1998

SeaWiFS documented the rapid demise of El Niño in the waters around the Galapagos Islands. The images show a explosion in plankton growth as the warm El Niño waters blamed for choking off essential ocean nutrients are replaced by deep cold upwelled waters. The false color images, which document plankton concentrations a period from May 9, 1998 to May 31, 1998, show that life in the region to the west archipelago has returned in remarkable abundance. High concentrations are shown red and low concentrations in blue. Areas occluded by clouds are shown in white. A relief image of the Galapagos islands has been superimposed on the images to clarify the location of the islands.

Phytoplankton concentrations around the Galapagos Islands for May 29, 1998 from SeaWIFS. This image was not used in the animation.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    OrbView-2/SeaWiFS

  • Animation ID

    205

  • Video ID

    SVS1998-0004

  • Start Timecode

    1:01:26:22

  • End Timecode

    01:02:52:23

  • Animator

    Greg Shirah, Marte Newcombe, Horace Mitchell

  • Studio

    SVS

  • Visualization Date

    1998/06/11

  • Scientist

    Gene Feldman (NASA/GSFC)

  • Keywords

    Galapagos, Phytoplankton, El Niño

  • DLESE Subject

    Biological oceanography

  • Data Date

    1998/05/09, 1998/05/18, 1998/05/22, 1998/05/24, 1998/05/29, 1998/05/31

  • Story URL

    stories/elnino/index.html

  • Animation Type

    Regular