Phytoplankton Bloom Near Ireland

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Friday, 30 May 2008, 06:26 CDT Download full size image

The ocean west of Ireland is vibrant with color in this image captured by the MODIS on the Terra satellite on May 25, 2008. The blue and green colors swirling in the ocean waters indicate massive amounts of microscopic marine plants called phytoplankton. The variety of colors can be due to varying concentrations and types of phytoplankton and the chlorophyll and other pigments they contain.

Very dark green areas could be caused by extremely high levels of phytoplankton - so much light is being absorbed by chlorophyll that the water appears dark!

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