Ocean Color Image Gallery

Unusual Chlorophyll Pattern Off New Zealand

The spring bloom is underway in the South Pacific Ocean around New Zealand. Patchiness is common in phytoplankton distributions, but the small, high-chlorophyll patches to the east of the North Island struck this writer as noteworthy because they appear different from the distributions I am used to seeing. I wonder what sort of plankton makes those patches?

Move your pointer over the above Suomi-NPP/VIIRS image to just display relative chlorophyll concentration in gray scale (the brighter the pixels, the higher the chlorophyll). Click on the image to download a larger version of the enhanced-color image.