The Mystery of the Giant Blue Vortex

[zorgon]

The Mystery of the Giant Blue Vortex

What is this Giant Glowing Vortex?

[zorgon]

NASA SAYS:

Spiral of Plankton


Image Date:
Monday, December 30, 2013

While the northern latitudes are bathed in the dull colors and light of mid-winter, the waters of the southern hemisphere are alive with mid-summer blooms. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite acquired this natural-color satellite image of a plankton bloom as it appeared at 1:05 p.m. local time on December 30, 2013. The eddy is centered at roughly 40° South latitude and 120° East longitude, about 600 kilometers off the coast of Australia in the southeastern Indian Ocean.

Like land-based plants, phytoplankton require sunlight, water, and nutrients to grow. Sunlight is now abundant in the far southern latitudes, so nutrients are the limiting variable to phytoplankton growth. Open waters of the ocean can appear relatively barren compared to the nutrient-rich waters near the world's coasts. In the case of the bloom above, the nutrients may have been supplied by the churning action of ocean currents.

As this image shows, an eddy is outlined by a milky green phytoplankton bloom. Eddies are masses of water that typically spin off of larger currents and rotate in whirlpool-like fashion. They can stretch for hundreds of kilometers and last for months. As these water masses stir the ocean, they can draw nutrients up from the deep, fertilizing the surface waters to create blooms in the open ocean. Other times, they carry in nutrients spun off of other currents.

It is possible that the mesoscale eddy and plankton bloom shown above are related to the "great southern coccolithophore belt" (or the "great calcite belt.") In late southern spring and summer (roughly November to March), satellite instruments detect an abundance of particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) in waters at high latitudes. The PIC is often due to calcium carbonate, which makes up the plate-like shells of microscopic plankton known as coccolithophores. The calcium carbonate gives the water a chalky aquamarine hue.

Image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, NASA Earth Observatory, using data from the Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE). Caption by Michael Carlowicz, NASA Earth Observatory, with image interpretation help from Norman Kuring, NASA Ocean Color Group.

http://aqua.nasa.gov/highlights/spiral-plankton

[robomont]

if its spiraling,its going up or down at center.if its got oil in the plankton then how can it sink.i suspect haarp on a submarine.because anytime i see a spiral these days,thats the first thing i think of.

[rdunk]

Interesting!! ...................Of the 4 Blue Vortex pics you posted, it appears that 1 pic shows to be spinning clockwise, and the other 3 pics are shown to be spinning counter clockwise. Looks like maybe actually 2 different Vortexes??

Also somewhat like the "spin" of Galaxies - looks like a "blackhole" in the vortex center!!   

[robomont]

maybe the plankton is neutral bouyancy.so depending on water temp,the bloom rises or falls.thus causing right hand or left hand spirals.

[zorgon]

While the northern latitudes are bathed in the dull colors and light of mid-winter, the waters of the southern hemisphere are alive with mid-summer blooms. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite acquired this natural-color satellite image of a plankton bloom as it appeared at 1:05 p.m. local time on December 30, 2013. The eddy is centered at roughly 40° South latitude and 120° East longitude, about 600 kilometers off the coast of Australia in the southeastern Indian Ocean.

Like land-based plants, phytoplankton require sunlight, water, and nutrients to grow. Sunlight is now abundant in the far southern latitudes, so nutrients are the limiting variable to phytoplankton growth. Open waters of the ocean can appear relatively barren compared to the nutrient-rich waters near the world's coasts. In the case of the bloom above, the nutrients may have been supplied by the churning action of ocean currents.

As the close-up image shows, an eddy is outlined by a milky green phytoplankton bloom. Eddies are masses of water that typically spin off of larger currents and rotate in whirlpool-like fashion. They can stretch for hundreds of kilometers and last for months. As these water masses stir the ocean, they can draw nutrients up from the deep, fertilizing the surface waters to create blooms in the open ocean. Other times, they carry in nutrients spun off of other currents.

It is possible that the mesoscale eddy and plankton bloom shown above are related to the "great southern coccolithophore belt" (or the "great calcite belt.") In late southern spring and summer (roughly November to March), satellite instruments detect an abundance of particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) in waters at high latitudes. The PIC is often due to calcium carbonate, which makes up the plate-like shells of microscopic plankton known as coccolithophores. The calcium carbonate gives the water a chalky aquamarine hue.

References
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (2012) Eddy/Wind Interactions Stimulate Extraordinary Mid-Ocean Plankton Blooms. Science, Vol. 316 (5827) pp. 1021-1026.
NASA Earth Observatory (2000, July 17) Tracking Eddies that Feed the Sea.
NASA Earth Observatory (2012, February 11) The Eddy and the Plankton.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (2006, April 13) The Oceans Have Their Own Weather Systems. Oceanus. Accessed January 3, 2014.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (2006, April 13) Ocean Topics: Currents, Gyres, and Eddies. Accessed January 3, 2014.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using data from the Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE). Caption by Michael Carlowicz, with image interpretation help from Norman Kuring, NASA Ocean Color Group.
Instrument(s):
Aqua - MODIS

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=82761

[zorgon]

Interesting!! ...................Of the 4 Blue Vortex pics you posted, it appears that 1 pic shows to be spinning clockwise, and the other 3 pics are shown to be spinning counter clockwise. Looks like maybe actually 2 different Vortexes??

Yes there are different ones  Some off Australia some off South Africa

Seems this is from 2012/3 news

[zorgon]

Satellite captures enormous 90-mile-wide storm that's UNDERWATER

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
UPDATED: 09:38 EDT, 21 February 2012

A Nasa satellite has provided jaw-dropping pictures of a huge 'storm' brewing under the sea.
The swirling mass of water - which measures a whopping 93 miles wide - has been spotted off the coast of South Africa by the Terra satellite on December 26.

But there's no need to alert international shipping, or worry about the poor fish that might find themselves in an endless washing cycle - the body of water poses no threat.

Indeed, it is more likely to create life by sucking nutrients from the bed and bringing them to the surface.

The sea storms - which are better known as eddies - form bizarre whirl shaped shapes deep beneath the ocean's surface.

This counter-clockwise eddy is thought to have peeled off from the Agulhas Current, which flows along the southeastern coast of Africa and around the tip of South Africa.

Agulhas eddies - also called 'current rings' - tend to be among the largest in the world, transporting warm, salty water from the Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic.
Agulhas eddies can remove juvenile fish from the continental shelf, reducing catch sizes if one passes through a fishing region.

The bizarre phenomenon was spotted when the Terra satellite was conducting a routine natural-colour image of the Earth.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2104279/Nasa-satellite-pictures-enormous-90-mile-wide-underwater-storm-.html

[robomont]

i bet the currents running against that continental shelf are real fast.imagine some little fish ,minding his own business and bam,70mph in seconds.

[thorfourwinds]

I spoke of vortices in my very first thread here on Peggy. 

Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?

Unfortunately, many of the pics have disappeared (hosted on Tango ), so here is a reference link with many of them.

https://watchers.news/2012/02/17/unusual-number-of-vortices-formed-around-the-globe-today/

[zorgon]

Unfortunately, many of the pics have disappeared (hosted on Tango ), so here is a reference link with many of them.

As long as the ATS image number is still in the post they can be accessed It will take some time but it can be done.  Just have to save them elsewhere