Ocean Color Image Gallery

Adriatic Sea

Late in the fall, phytoplankton in the Adriatic Sea made many small eddies and filaments visible — signs of turbulent currents in the surface waters of this offshoot of the Mediterranean. The light streaks extending from Croatia's Velebit Mountains in the upper right corner of the above image are sunlight reflecting off of whitecaps churned up by stiff winds flowing off of those mountains. Both the air and the water on the Italian side of the sea (lower left) look more turbid.

The above Landsat 8 image was collected on December 14, 2020. Click on it to get a larger version showing more of the region.