Phytoplankton bloom off Nova Scotia
-
Credit
Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
The waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence (top) are midnight blue in this Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Aqua satellite on July 2, 2003. South of Nova Scotia (center), however, bright blue swirls in the water suggest a bloom of marine organisms, perhaps a kind of phytoplankton called a coccolithophore, a single-celled plant whose chalky white covering can cause the water to appear bright blue.