Written by: Jess Van Vaerenbergh, 四虎影视 CMS graduate student
From space, mosaics of color can be observed throughout the ocean. Satellite images of those colorful patterns can now be seen in the halls of CMS.
Scientists use remote sensing instruments on satellites to study ocean color, which is the hue, shade, or tone created when sunlight interacts with water and tiny suspended particles.
The color variation depends on how the materials in the water absorb and scatter light particles. When water is low in productivity, the ocean reflects various blues depending on depth. Shallow coastal waters, such as those in the Bahamas, reflect a turquoise hue, while deep waters reflect dark blue.
Highly productive particles in the water add more colors to the pallet through the way they scatter and absorb light. For example, milky blues can indicate a bloom of single-celled organisms called coccolithophores, while a mix of turquoise and brown indicates a sediment plume entering the ocean from the land. Patches of greens indicate algal or phytoplankton blooms.
IMAGE ABOVE: Sediment and algae blooms in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Mississippi. Photo Credit: OLI on the Landsat-8 satellite.
IMAGE ABOVE: The milky blue swirl indicates a coccolithophore bloom in the Barents Sea, north of Norway and Russia. These blooms persist every summer. Photo Credit: VIIRS on the NOAA-20 satellite.
Brian Barnes, assi