ESAHomeObserving the Earth
   
About climate change
Space and Earth Monitoring
International treaties implementation
About Observing the Earth
EO programmes
The Living PlanetGMESESA's Climate Change Initiative
Multimedia
Image GalleryVideo GalleryAnimations
 
 
 
Bookmark and Share
 
 
 
 
Article Images
Earth from Space: A southern summer bloom
 
13 January 2012

A southern summer bloom
Download:
 HI-RES JPEG (Size: 770 kb)  HI-RES TIFF (Size: 12 179 kb)
In this Envisat image, acquired on 2 December 2011, a phytoplankton bloom swirls a figure-of-8 in the South Atlantic Ocean about 600 km east of the Falkland Islands. Different types and quantities of phytoplankton exhibit different colours, such as the blues and greens in this image.

Earth-observing satellites like Envisat can monitor these algal blooms. Once a bloom begins, an ocean colour sensor can make an initial identification of its chlorophyll pigment, and therefore its species and toxicity.

Credits: ESA

 


Archive
Image archive Earth images gallerySatellite Images
Related missions
Envisat overview
Choose a language
 Article complet Article complet Article complet Article complet
 
 
 
   Copyright 2000 - 2012 © European Space Agency. All rights reserved.