May 17, 2021 - Phytoplankton Bloom off of the Eastern United States

    Follow @NASA_MODIS

   bloom off maryland
    Tweet
    Share

   A spring bloom of phytoplankton colored hugged the shores of Virginia,
   Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey in mid-May 2021. The Moderate
   Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua
   satellite acquired an image of the bloom in the Atlantic Ocean on May
   13. The jewel-toned swirls stretch along the coast for about 200 miles
   (322 km) and measure about 34 miles (55 km) wide.

   Phytoplankton are tiny, plant-like organisms that often float near the
   ocean surface and turn sunlight and carbon dioxide into sugars and
   oxygen. In turn, they become food for the grazing zooplankton,
   shellfish, and finfish of the sea. The also play an important but not
   fully understood role in the global carbon cycle, taking carbon dioxide
   out of the atmosphere and sinking it to the bottom of the ocean.

   These microscopic organisms live in these waters year-round, but
   usually their numbers are small enough that they aren’t visible. It’s
   only when conditions are right—warming waters, lengthening sunlight,
   and adequate nutrients—that they burst into the explosive reproduction
   which creates massive blooms easily seen from space.

   On April 24, only three weeks before this image was acquired, a strong
   storm moved northeastward through the Mid-Atlantic states, carrying
   strong winds and torrential rains. By April 26, when the skies cleared,
   MODIS imagery revealed that the rivers as well as the waters of
   Delaware Bay (north) and the Chesapeake Bay (south) were mud-colored,
   indicating a large amount of sediment had washed into the two bays and,
   most likely, continued into the waters of the near-shore Atlantic.
   Although most of the sediment rapidly cleared from satellite imagery,
   it is likely that this rush of soil-laden water provided a burst of
   nutrients to spur phytoplankton growth.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Aqua
   Date Acquired: 5/13/2021
   Resolutions:  1km (231.9 KB),  500m (588.6 KB),  250m (431.4
   KB)
   Bands Used: 1,4,3
   Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-05-17
 
