Phytoplankton bloom south of Ireland

  • Credit

    Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

The clouds of blue and green that color the Atlantic Ocean south of Ireland are formed by millions of microscopic ocean plants. Called phytoplankton, these plants are visible from space when large blooms proliferate on the surface of the ocean. Like all plants, phytoplankton absorb energy from the sun and convert it to nutrients using chlorophyll. It is chlorophyll that gives plants their green color, and it is chlorophyll that colors the ocean green in the lower left corner of the image. Some phytoplankton are coated with chalky white scales. These give the ocean its brilliant blue color in the center of the image. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this true-color image on June 9, 2005.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Terra/MODIS

  • Visualization Date

    2005-06-15