April 28, 2024

Gorgeous Watercolor Seas in the Wake of Hurricane Ian

October 1, 2022
September 22, 2022
The image (upper) was gotten by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Terra satellite on October 1, 2022, a few days after landfall. For comparison, the 2nd image (lower) reveals a more typical view of the regions seaside waters on September 22, 2022
Notice that even prior to the storm, there is currently some color in the water. Smaller amounts of suspended sediments were likely present, much of the color is really due to light showing off seagrass beds, the sandy seafloor, and coral reefs (specifically around the Bahamas). A few of the darkest colors near rivers might be brought on by tannins from decaying greenery.
September 30, 2022.
The image above was gotten by the European Space Agency (ESA)s Sentinel-2 objective on September 30, 2022. It reveals an in-depth view of the shoreline near Fort Myers, Florida. Parts of this coastline and barrier islands were among a few of the hardest hit, with flooding from storm rise that most likely measured a minimum of 6 feet (2 meters) deep.
Nearly one week after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, swirls of sediment were still obvious on October 4.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using MODIS information from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview and modified Copernicus Sentinel information (2022) processed by the European Space Agency.

The redistribution of water is clearly apparent in these natural-color satellite images, which show colorful swirls of sediment that the storm stirred up in Floridas coastal waters. The blue-green color is most likely sediment that the storm Ian lifted from the seafloor as it neared the coast. Brown water closer to coast is most likely colored by sediment from land, brought by rivers and runoff streaming into the ocean.

Storm-stirred sediment produced colorful swirls along the western coast of Florida.
Cyclone Ian barreled into Floridas southwestern coast on September 28, 2022, as a powerful category-4 storm with continual winds of about 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour. However, wind was not the only destructive component of the powerful storm; water was also a significant aspect, in the kind of a catastrophic storm rise, relentless downpours, and intense flooding.
The redistribution of water is clearly obvious in these natural-color satellite images, which show vibrant swirls of sediment that the storm stirred up in Floridas seaside waters. The turquoise color is likely sediment that the storm Ian raised from the seafloor as it neared the coast. Brown water closer to coast is most likely colored by sediment from land, brought by rivers and runoff flowing into the ocean.