Past IOCCG Feature Images

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Sable Island
Coccolith Bloom Around Sable Island
. In this full resolution (300m) true colour image captured by MERIS on 5 July 2010, we can clearly see the sun reflecting off the narrow, crescent-shaped Sable Island, which is surrounded by a large coccolithophore bloom. Sable Island lies 300 km southeast of Nova Scotia, Canada in the Atlantic Ocean, and is renowned for its wild horses and over 350 shipwrecks. The backscattering coefficient of total suspended matter, derived using the MERIS Case 2 Regional processor (C2R), is also useful for detecting coccolithophore blooms. Daily full resolution MERIS data are downlinked and archived by the Canada Center for Remote Sensing (CCRS), via a data sharing agreement between the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). These images were processed by the Remote Sensing Unit of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (Nova Scotia, Canada). Image provided by Gordana Lazin.		 Great Whirl off Somali Coast
This chlorophyll-a image captured by ISRO's OCEANSAT-2 OCM instrument on 12 October 2010 clearly shows the Great Whirl off the Somali coast. The Great Whirl is a mesoscale feature (~450 km) associated with high chlorophyll concentration along its periphery. This circulation is caused by the north easterly acceleration of the Somali current through the Socotra passage around Socotra Islands. Such features are commonly seen in ocean-colour data during the transition period of the southwest to northeast monsoon in this region. Image provided by Prakash Chauhan, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
GOCI-Yangtze Plume
Yangtze discharge captured by GOCI/COMS
Level-1B composite image (5-11 April 2011) of eastern China, South Korea and Japan, captured by the GOCI instrument on board the geostationary COMS satellite (image processed by KOSC, Korea Ocean Satellite Centre). A turbid plume of resuspended sediment originating from the discharge of the Yangtze River is clearly visible on the left hand side of the image. Resuspended sediments are prevalent in winter and spring, when strong seasonal winds cause mixing of the water column. Image provided by Dr. Yu-Hwan Ahn, KORDI (Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute).