Earth  ID: 208

Sea Surface Temperature-Phytoplankton Correlation around the Galapagos in May 1998

Visualizations by Horace Mitchell Released on June 11, 1998
SeaWiFS documented the rapid demise of El Niño in the waters around the Galapagos Islands. The images show a explosion in plankton growth as the warm El Niño waters blamed for choking off essential ocean nutrients are replaced by deep cold upwelled waters. The false color images, which document plankton concentrations a period from May 9 to May 24, 1998, show that life in the region to the west archipelago has returned in remarkable abundance. High concentrations are shown red. Areas occluded by clouds are shown in white.
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A fade from May 10 to May 25, 1998 showing sea surface temperature and phytoplankton density near the Galapagos
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A SeaWIFS image of the region around the Galapagos Islands on May 10, 1998 showing little or no phytoplankton
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A SeaWIFS image of the region around the Galapagos Islands on May 25, 1998 showing a large phytoplankton bloom
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SeaWIFS images of the region around the Galapagos Islands on May 10, 1998 and May 25, 1998 compared with NCEP sea surface temperatures, showing the return of sea life as the ocean cools after El Niño

For More Information

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/stories/elnino/index.html

Visualization Credits

Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Marte Newcombe (GST): Animator
Gene Feldman (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, The SeaWiFS Project and GeoEye, Scientific Visualization Studio. NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye (NOTE: In January 2013, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye combined to become DigitalGlobe).

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/208

Data Used:
NOAA-14/AVHRR
1998/05/10, 1998/05/25
view all stories where this data set is used
SeaStar/SeaWiFS/NDVI
1998/05/10, 1998/05/25
All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye.
Credit:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, The SeaWiFS Project and GeoEye, Scientific Visualization Studio. NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye (NOTE: In January 2013, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye combined to become one DigitalGlobe.).
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
El Niño and La Niña

Keywords:
DLESE >> Biological oceanography
DLESE >> Physical oceanography
SVS >> Phytoplankton
GCMD >> Location >> Galapagos Islands
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0