Last updated on March 17, 2014 at 1:24 EDT Phytoplankton Bloom
off Namibia 2206 of 3824  Phytoplankton Bloom off Namibia
November 19, 2007  A flash of blue and green lit the waters off
Namibia in early November 2007 as a phytoplankton bloom grew and
faded in the Atlantic Ocean. The Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite captured this
photo-like image on November 8, 2007. The bloom stretches from
north to south along hundreds of kilometers, though it is
brightest in the center of this image. Such blooms are common in
the coastal waters off southwest Africa where cold, nutrient-
rich currents sweep north from Antarctica and interact with the
coastal shelf. At the same time, the trade winds push surface
water away from the shore, allowing water from the ocean's floor
to rise to the surface, bringing with it iron and other
material. The suffusion of nutrients from both the currents and
upwelling water creates an environment where tiny surface-
dwelling ocean plants (phytopla