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Bioluminescent Milky Sea Observed from Space

From: Sean Chamberlin <sean~at~oceansonline.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 20:55:59 -0700
To: <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Greetings,
 
I thought you might like to learn that scientists reported in the Oct 4 2005
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the first-ever observations
of a bioluminescent milky sea from an Earth-orbiting satellite. Of course,
we all know that Jules Verne described a milky sea in 20K long before
satellites were invented.
 
Here's the abstract of the paper:
 
Detection of a bioluminescent milky sea from space

Steven D. Miller *, {dagger} <http://www.pnas.org/math/link//dagger.gif> ,
Steven H. D. Haddock {ddagger} <http://www.pnas.org/math/Dagger.gif> ,
Christopher D. Elvidge § <http://www.pnas.org/math/sect.gif> and Thomas F.
Lee *


*Marine Meteorology Division, Naval Research Laboratory, 7 Grace Hopper
Avenue, MS #2, Monterey, CA 93943; {ddagger}
<http://www.pnas.org/math/Dagger.gif> Monterey Bay Aquarium Research
Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039; and §
<http://www.pnas.org/math/sect.gif> National Geophysical Data Center,
Boulder, CO 80303


Communicated by J. Woodland Hastings, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA,
August 19, 2005 (received for review April 29, 2005)



On many occasions over the centuries, mariners have reported witnessing
surreal nocturnal displays where the surface of the sea produces an intense,
uniform, and sustained glow that extends to the horizon in all directions.
Although such emissions cannot be fully reconciled with the known features
of any light-emitting organism, these so-called "milky seas" are
hypothesized to be manifestations of unusually strong bioluminescence
produced by colonies of bacteria in association with a microalgal bloom in
the surface waters. Because of their ephemeral nature and the paucity of
scientific observations, an explanation of milky seas has remained elusive.
Here, we report the first satellite observations of the phenomenon. An
{approx} <http://www.pnas.org/math/ap.gif> 15,400-km2 area of the
northwestern Indian Ocean, roughly the size of the state of Connecticut, was
observed to glow over 3 consecutive nights, corroborated on the first night
by a ship-based account. This unanticipated application of satellite
remote-sensing technology provides insights pertaining to the formation and
scale of these poorly understood events.

 
If you would like a copy of the article, please feel free to e-mail me.
 
Cheers,

Sean
 

W. Sean Chamberlin, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Earth Sciences

Fullerton College

schamberlin~at~fullcoll.edu

http://staffwww.fullcoll.edu/schamberlin

 

 

 

Received on Sat 08 Oct 2005 - 00:20:27 IDT

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