Phytoplankton Bloom in the Barents Sea (Photo of the Day)

This impressive shot from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite was captured on August 14, 2011 and shows a massive phytoplankton bloom in the Barents Sea, located north of Norway and Russia.

The navy blue sea is painted a brilliant bright blue thanks to the light reflecting off millions of phytoplankton, a microscopic plant that grows in the sunlit surface water of the world’s oceans. You can tell how close the bloom is to the surface by looking at the brightness of the blues being reflected; the deeper the bloom, the duller the colour.

Source: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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