photo #5187003

Phytoplankton is a general term for the diversity of microscopic algae that live in the world’s oceans. Under the right conditions, these single-celled plants can multiply into vast green clouds visible from Space. This phytoplankton bloom off the south-eastern coast of Argentina was large enough to be spotted by cameras onboard a NASA satellite as it passed over the South Atlantic. The swirls of the algal bloom render visible the ocean eddies and currents, just as the marine Stratocumulus clouds here do the atmospheric currents. These coastal waters are rich in phytoplankton due to easterly winds blowing mineral-rich dust into the sea from the Patagonian Desert and ocean upwellings at the edge of the continental shelf bringing nutrients up from the depths. And the connection between clouds and phytoplankton blooms isn’t just in appearance. An active area of scientific research is exploring how volatile organic compounds released into the water by the algae end up in the atmosphere through the bursting of ocean bubbles and eventually serve as the tiny atmospheric nuclei that help cloud droplets form. In other words, clouds of phytoplankton in the waters below seem to help make clouds of water in the swirling air above.