Phytoplankton Bloom off West Africa

  • Credit

    Image courtesy the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE

A large phytoplankton bloom off West Africa brought patterns of green and turquoise to the Atlantic's surface waters on March 29, 2003.

Bright patches of green and turquoise water ? most likely phytoplankton blooms ? are visible in this SeaWiFS image of the Atlantic Ocean off of western Africa, collected on March 29, 2003. The yellowish haze in the lower portion of the image is dust from the continent. It is possible that the phytoplankton bloom may have been stimulated by the iron-rich dust blowing from the Sahara Desert out over the Atlantic in recent weeks.

(Editor’s note: This image was posted because it is scientifically interesting. We are not suggesting that this particular bloom presents any kind of natural hazard.)

Metadata

  • Sensor

    OrbView-2/SeaWiFS

  • Start Date

    2003-03-29

  • Event Start Date

    2003-03-29

  • NH Image ID

    8643

  • NH Event ID

    7124

  • NH Posting Date

    2003-03-31