November 4, 2022 - Lake Michigan in Bloom
Lake Michigan
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Milky turquoise swirls tinted the southern tip of Lake Michigan on
November 1, 2022, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a
true-color image of the third-largest Great Lake. The bright colors
extend near the coastline from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the west to
Benton Harbor, Michigan in the east. In addition, a cloud of
lighter-toned hues color deeper water in the southeastern section of
the lake, roughly from Muskegon, Michigan to La Porte, Indiana.
The color most likely comes from a combination of sediment and
phytoplankton. At the start of October, the waters of southern Lake
Michigan appeared dark blue and were nearly free of jewel-toned stains.
A series of cloudy days with gusty wind kicked up sediment near the
southern shores, especially from October 16-18, leaving the southern
coastal waters tinted muddy brown on October 19. Over the next few
days, the sediment was carried eastward and into deeper waters. The
color of sediment changes from tan to greenish or blue-green as it
sinks below the surface.
Now, almost two weeks after the cold and gusty front moved over the
lake, the color along the shoreline has thinned while the color in the
deeper water has expanded. This strongly suggests that phytoplankton,
which live in the lake year-round, have taken advantage of the extra
nutrients provided by the stirred-up sediment and have begun to
reproduce explosively to create a large bloom.
Phytoplankton are microscopic algae which contain the pigment
chlorophyll and float freely in the sunlit upper layers of marine
environments, including the Great Lakes. Blooms are most common in the
spring and summer in the Great Lakes, when water is warm and daylight
is long. However, late-season blooms can occur, especially when
nutrients become plentiful.
Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 11/2/2022
Resolutions: 1km (218.6 KB), 500m (610.5 KB), 250m (1.3 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=2022-11-04
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