Beautiful Plankton Blooms Seen from Space

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NASA's Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of phytoplankton blooms on May 4, 2013, in France's Bay of Biscay.
NASA's Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of phytoplankton blooms on May 4, 2013, in France's Bay of Biscay. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory)

As weather warms up off the coast of France, blooms of plankton have once again begun to form, creating a beautiful, multicolored swirl visible from space.

NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites acquired these images of the colorful blooms on April 20 and May 4, according to  the NASA Earth Observatory. On the later date, a noticeably larger bloom occurred, fueled by nutrient runoff from French rivers and warmer temperatures in the Bay of Biscay.

The blooms can also have beneficial environmental effects. According to a study published last summer in the journal Science, phytoplankton blooms absorb about one-third of the carbon dioxide humans emit into the air each year through burning fossil fuels.

Various pigments produce the colors of the phytoplankton blooms. For example, a type of algae called Coccolithophores makes a calcium-containing shell that creates a milky appearance, according to the Earth Observatory.

NASA's Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image of phytoplankton blooms on April 20, 2013, in France's Bay of Biscay. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory)

(Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory)

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Douglas Main
Douglas Main
Douglas Main loves the weird and wonderful world of science, digging into amazing Planet Earth discoveries and wacky animal findings (from marsupials mating themselves to death to zombie worms to tear-drinking butterflies) for Live Science. Follow Doug on Google+.