Off the east coast of <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand" class="mw-redirect" title="New Zealand">New Zealand</a>, cold rivers of water that have branched off from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_circumpolar_current" class="extiw" title="en:Antarctic circumpolar current">Antarctic Circumpolar Current</a> flow north past <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Island" class="extiw" title="en:South Island">South Island</a> and converge with warmer waters flowing south past <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:North_Island,_New_Zealand" title="Category:North Island, New Zealand">North Island</a>. The surface waters of this meeting place are New Zealand's most biologically productive. This image of the area shows the basis for that productivity: large blooms of plantlike organisms called phytoplankton. Phytoplankton use <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Chlorophyll" title="Category:Chlorophyll">chlorophyll</a> and other <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photosynthetic_pigments" title="Category:Photosynthetic pigments">pigments</a> to absorb <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sunlight" title="Category:Sunlight">sunlight</a> for <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photosynthesis" title="Category:Photosynthesis">photosynthesis</a>, and when they grow in large numbers, they change the way the ocean surface reflects sunlight. Caught up in <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Eddies" title="Category:Eddies">eddies</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_current" class="extiw" title="en:Ocean current">currents</a>, the blooms create intricate patterns of blues and greens that spread across thousands of square kilometres of the sea surface. Especially bright blue areas may indicate the presence of phytoplankton called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccolithophore" class="extiw" title="en:Coccolithophore">coccolithophores</a>, which are coated with <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Calcium_carbonate" title="Category:Calcium carbonate">calcium-carbonate</a> scales that are very reflective. The duller greenish-brown areas of the bloom may be <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Diatoms" title="Category:Diatoms">diatoms</a>, which have a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_dioxide" class="extiw" title="en:Silicon dioxide">silica</a>-based covering.
Jeff Schmaltz
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40924">NASA Earth Observatory</a>