Phytoplankton and sediment produced a vivid display in this relatively shallow sea between Great Britain and northern Europe.
The North Sea in springtime is as colorful as any place you will find on land. Spring 2020 was no different, as phytoplankton and sediment produced a vivid display in this relatively shallow sea between Great Britain and northern Europe.
Blooms of phytoplankton—the tiny plant-like organisms floating in the ocean—are constantly in flux. Their populations explode, then die out, while at the same time they are mixed by the currents and tides. Sediment that gets carried along with moving water is also constantly in motion. The wide view above shows a snapshot of the North Sea on March 25, 2020. It is a composite, combining data acquired that day by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites, which passed over in the late morning and early afternoon.
Ute Daewel, a marine ecosystem scientist at the Center for Materials and Coastal Research in Germany, points out three distinct regions. Closest to the coast of mainland Europe, the color in the very shallow water is likely due to suspended sediments and other matter carried to sea by the large rivers. (There could be phytoplankton present, too.) The same phenomenon is visible around the coast of Great Britain, particularly where the River Thames meets the North Sea.
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Image via NASA Earth Observatory
