Satellite Eye for Galathea 3

Algea near Broome in Australia seen from Envisat MERIS 9 November 2006.

What can you see?
Generally, low concentrations of algae are seen (in blue colours). In a few places some algae blooming (in green and yellow) is found along the northwestern coast of Australia. In particular, high chlorophyll content is found in three places. The first is in the southeastern part of the image. The second place is centrally in the image near Broome where the ship Vædderen of theGalathea 3 expedition just has passed, and the third place is in the northeasterly part of the image. In all three cases the blooming appears near river outlets where nutrients are carried out from the land. The rivers are called: ”Oakover”, ”Eitzroy” and ”Durack”.

Technical information
The algae images are produced using a complicated mathematical-physical model that analysis the colour of the ocean very precisely, and it is based on the fact that chlorophyll in algae absorbs sunlight and therefore causes a lesser reflection of blue and red colours than would have appeared in the case of no algae.

There is more information on algae observed from satellite available on http://galathea3.emu.dk/satelliteeye/projekter/phytoplankton/index_uk.html

It is possible to take the algae image into Google Earth using http://galathea.oersted.dtu.dk/GE.html
and then select the image named below in the list of algae images:  http://galathea.oersted.dtu.dk/GE.html%2020061109_011027

The weekly image is produced by Ørsted-DTU, one of the partners in the project Satellite Eye for Galathea 3.