File:Phytoplankton Bloom in the Barents Sea (MODIS 2020-08-23).jpg

English: Have you ever spent a lazy summer afternoon picking images out of billowing clouds? A fluffy white bank over here may look like a flying bird, while over there the clouds resemble a rearing horse? It is a favorite hobby for many, young and old alike. Sometimes, looking down from space, we can also be tempted to imagine fanciful images in the clouds or the ocean.

On August 21, 2020, NASA’s Terra satellite flew over the Barents Sea, allowing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board to capture a stunning true-color image of swirls of turquoise, milky blue, and bits of green in the deep blue waters north of Murmansk, Russia.

Surrounded by cloud, the jewel-tone eddies tempt the viewer to create creatures out of the colors – perhaps a dragon emerging from its lair, or a pony-tailed girl surfing over a string of big waves. Whatever one might imagine in the bright twirls and swirls, the reality may sound almost as fanciful – these colors are created by a vast collection of microscopic plant-like organisms floating in the chilly waters of the Barents Sea. Called “phytoplankton”, these organisms live in these waters year-round and, when there is the perfect combination of temperature, nutrients, and sunlight length, burst into explosive reproduction, creating huge blooms that can easily be seen from space.

The prime time for phytoplankton blooms in the Barents Sea is late summer, although they may occur in spring and linger through part of autumn. While the blooms are an annual occurrence, spotting them in this location can be more difficult – the Barents Sea is covered in cloud 80 percent of the time in summer.