Today’s Image of the Day comes courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory and features a look at a phytoplankton bloom off the coast of New Jersey. The photo was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard NASA’s Aqua satellite.
The bloom was mostly likely caused by nutrient runoff from inland sources that made its way down into the ocean. Given adequate sunlight, the phytoplankton bloom expands rather quickly.
“These upwellings occur every summer, and fuel large phytoplankton blooms,” said marine scientist Oscar Schofield of Rutgers University. “Studies have suggested these summer upwelling events occur several times each summer and lead to large blooms that can discolor the water.”
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By Rory Arnold, Earth.com
Source: NASA Earth Observatory
