Ocean Color Image Gallery

Let the Sunshine In

A window opens up in the skies, letting the region's quintessential spectacular summer phytoplankton blooms flourish in the Norwegian and Barents Seas. To the North, a Kármán vortex street is created in the clouds above Bear Island. Kármán vortices happen when a flowing fluid encounters an obstacle that creates eddies in the flow. The phenomenon is named after Theodore von Kármán , who co-founded NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

This image was captured by the Aqua-MODIS sensor on July 13, 2023 .

A stunning Landsat scene also features part of these summer blooms as they appeared in the Barents Sea on July 12, 2023.