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Scotland seen from space

auteur: ESA/Novapix

référence: t-eueco-00001

Image Size 300 DPI: 13 * 13 cm

This satellite image captures the green swirls of a phytoplankton bloom in the North Sea off the coast of eastern Scotland. Phytoplankton, microscopic marine plants that drift near the surface of the sea, are by far the most abundant type of life found in the ocean. The chlorophyll they collectively contain colour the ocean's waters, which provides a means of detecting these tiny organisms from space with dedicated ocean colour sensors, like Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument. MERIS acquired this image on 7 May 2008, working in Full Resolution mode to provide a spatial resolution of 300 m.

Keywords for this photo:

2008 - EARTH - EARTH FROM SPACE - ENVISAT - EUROPE - MERIS - NORTH SEA - PHYTOPLANKTON - SATELLITE IMAGE - SCOTLAND - UNITED KINGDOM -