NASA Image of Phytoplankton Goes Viral... ITS A WATER ART!!!!!!

"The image does a beautiful job of showing the close link between ocean physics and biology,” Michael Behrenfeld, a phytoplankton ecologist at Oregon State University, said in a statement. “The features that jump out so clearly represent the influence of ocean eddies and physical stirring on the concentration of phytoplankton pigments and, possibly, colored dissolved organic matter.”

JUST A FEW WEEKS AFTER

Just a few weeks after this bloom's colors were recorded, researchers with NASA’s North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) traveled to this stretch of ocean to take measurements using ship- and aircraft-based tools. The information they gathered will be combined with satellite and ocean sensor data to learn more about phytoplankton blooms and their effect on the environment, which can be significant, according to Rich Moore, deputy project scientist for NAAMES and a researcher at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

As phytoplankton bloom, they release organic molecules into the surrounding seawater. These molecules can then be lifted into the air as sea spray, Moore said in a statement.

“These biologically-driven aerosol influences have been detected as far away as coastal monitoring stations in Ireland,” Moore said. “However, we have much less information about what is going on out in middle of the ocean. NAAMES will attempt to fill this important scientific gap by studying the link between the bloom, any changes in the overlying atmospheric aerosols and how these changes may then go on to affect clouds and regional climate.”