Satellite Images of Emiliania huxleyi Blooms from Older Satellites (Pre-SeaWiFS)

[click on the small pictures on this page to view them at full size]

Older satellites (for instance CZCS and AVHRR) generally had/have reduced spatial resolution and reduced sensitivity to coccolith reflectance. LANDSAT however has very high spatial resolution (see image on previous page).

A satellite picture of the enormous bloom south of Iceland in the North Atlantic, June 1991. Oceanographers who sampled this bloom found the water to be full of coccoliths. (Photo from Steve Groom / Patrick Holligan).

Two satellite pictures of verified Ehux blooms (left) between Norway and Scotland, July 1982 (Photo from Steve Groom / Patrick Holligan), and (right) from the northern North Sea, 1995 (Photo from Lasse Pettersson, NERSC).

[Story of the discovery of Ehux blooms by satellite]

Ehux home page

Toby Tyrrell : T.Tyrrell@soc.soton.ac.uk