The first of these was collected on September 20, 2007. In that scene, a long, braided, arcuate band of green water stretched hundreds of kilometers across the open ocean. Roll your mouse over the image for an additional sense of scale. Click on the image to download a larger version (57 megabytes) of the scene.
Chlorophyll concentrations computed by our standard global algorithms reached as high as 20.8 milligrams per cubic meter in this particular scene. This particular bloom appeared to last only a few days.
The wave-like band of elevated chlorophyll along the equator is a typical feature of the equatorial Pacific known as a tropical instability wave. Such waves propagate and therefore usually get averaged away in longer term composites such as those shown on the previous page.
A month and a half later, an even stronger bloom would develop in roughly the same area.
