English: NASA satellite view of Southern Ocean phytoplankton bloom

On January 13, 2016, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this view of extensive phytoplankton blooms stretching from the tip of South America across to the Antarctic Peninsula. The image was built with data from the red, green, and blue wavelength bands on VIIRS, plus chlorophyll data. A series of image-processing steps highlighted the color differences and more subtle features, such as nearly a dozen eddies of varying sizes.

The parcel of blooming ocean—at least that part visible through the break in the clouds—stretched from 56° to 68° South latitude; that is roughly 720 nautical miles or 1300 kilometers from top to bottom. At the widest point, the plankton-rich waters spread from 78° to 93° West longitude, or roughly 480 miles (770 kilometers). These measurements only account for what can be seen between the clouds. The blooms in this image formed just west of the Drake Passage, one of the most turbulent mixing regions in the ocean.