Oceanic Phytoplanktonistic Fireworks

Oceanic Phytoplanktonistic Fireworks



Credit: NASA

Will you just look at that 'fireworks' in the ocean!

Happy New Year, everybody! :-)

Waves

Wave



Totally awesome wave!

Found over at the 'Italian' with an exquisite taste.

Productive Ocean

Productive Ocean



That sometimes is dead!

Certain areas of the oceans becomes 'lethal" occasionally. And it seems to be a link to climate change and of course pollution. Not good. We need our prime food provider intact. Read more about it on the pages of my favorite [environmental] cartographer.

Surface Water and Ocean Topography

Surface Water and Ocean Topography



Southern Ocean near-surface current speed from ECCO2


Satellites can do amazing things there days. I bet you haven't seen an image of ocean currents around Antarctica like the one above before. Simply über cool. The SWOT mission will give us information about water tables on land AND sea surface height - in one go. :-)

Why do we care? Because we want to know where the water is, preferably all the time, so that we know when to water our fields, know if there will be shortage of fresh water and if sea level will rise.

Spring Bloom

Spring! Bloom



On the other side of the planet they are enjoying the spring right now. While I'm getting colder each minute...

Paleomagnetics

Paleomagnetics



Magnetism is soooo freakin übercool. And people are rightfully fascinated by it. Particularly the magnetic fields entangled in and around our home planet - The Earth.

I have the deepest respect for magnetic fields and how hard it is to understand them, even if the laws of physics seem reasonably simple. :-)

Now, the magnetic fields and their development on this planet is important for our understanding of topic like climate change. Need I say more about how any theory in this field will be controversial to at least one group of people...? :-)

Hank Campbell is writing a very understandable introduction to paleomagnetism. Read the whole thing and note this:

"...Why does it matter? If we don't know how continents moved in the past and how they massed to form supercontinents, we can't accurately model ocean currents, global average temperatures and wind patterns - which means models of ancient climate would be a lot less made up than they are right now...."

And what do you know? I am explaining how GRAVITY plays a crucial role in understanding ocean currents in my latest episode (October) of A Green Space - A Green Earth.

These two aspect of the Earth, magnetism and gravity, illustrate one of my favorite points - the system Earth is extremely complicated.

Bloom!

Phytoplankton in Norwegian Fjords



Credit: NASA

Spectacular Algae Bloom.