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Capricorn Channel, Algal Bloom

27. Capricorn Channel, Algal Bloom

This AVHRR scene (NOAA-8, polar orbiting satellite) was taken just 12 minutes after the shuttle photograph in slide #26. As with slide pairs #4 and #5 and #15 and #16, this image shows it is possible to study certain phenomena with regular hand-held photography and using other forms of remote sensing. The AVHRR image covers a larger area than the shuttle photograph and has been processed at the Lunar and Planetary Institute to show the coastal plain vegetation in green. The cloud in top left of the shuttle photograph is seen in the arc around the top of the bloom, while the cloud in the bottom of the shuttle frame can be seen in the patch of cloud lying off the coast in the AVHRR image.

Manipulation of the AVHRR digital data failed to reveal any sea-surface temperature differentiation that might suggest a plankton presence, but it did reveal evidence of chlorophyll-rich plant life, subsequently identified as the zooxanthelae algae.

NOAA-8, October29, 1983. #AVHRR Bands 2:2:1

Right click here to download a high-resolution version of the image (8.9 MB)


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