Ocean Color Image Gallery

Carolina Tea

Winyah Bay (roughly midway between Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina) receives input from a number of blackwater rivers whose dark, reddish hues arise from the absorptive properties of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) which some have likened to nature's tea. CDOM is also produced in the open ocean but at much lower concentrations.

The above Landsat 8 view was collected on October 1, 2020. Click on it to get a much larger version that also shows CDOM plumes from the Cape Fear and Little rivers plus a few others.