October 10, 2022 - Spring Boom off South Africa

Bloom
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On October 7, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of
a colorful spring bloom coloring the waters off the west coast of South
Africa. The jewel-toned swirls of stretch for hundreds of miles in the
South Atlantic, roughly paralleling the coastline.

The colors are created by a floating mass of phytoplankton, which are
microscopic plant-like organisms that live in these waters year-round
in smaller numbers. When conditions are right—lengthening daylight,
proper water temperature, and adequate nutrition—phytoplankton can
reproduce explosively, creating massive blooms that are easily seen
from space.

Such blooms are common in the coastal waters off southwest Africa where
cold, nutrient-rich currents sweep north from Antarctica and interact
with the coastal shelf. At the same time, the easterly trade winds push
surface water away from the shore, allowing water from the ocean’s
floor to rise to the surface, bringing with it iron and other material.
The suffusion of nutrients from both the currents and upwelling water
creates an environment where these tiny surface-dwelling ocean plants
thrive in abundance.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 10/7/2022
Resolutions: 1km (430.7 KB), 500m (1.2 MB), 250m (2.6 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-10-10

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