April 4, 2015
Scientists used satellite images to reveal where and when the discolored patches of water appeared in between 2003 and 2020 and discovered a puzzling short-term boost in events in some areas.
As early as the 1930s, researchers saw that odd, milky-white patches of water sporadically blemish the usually bluer and shallow waters of the Bahama Banks. Sampling the stained water spots explained that these whiting occasions were caused by an abundance of fine-grained calcium carbonate particles suspended in the water.
Nevertheless, why surges of calcium carbonate end up suspended in the water at particular times has actually never ever been clear. Some professionals have argued that it is mainly a mechanical procedure, with currents dredging up calcium carbonate sediments. Others have proposed that phytoplankton blossoms and other biological or chemical procedures may be essential to setting off whiting events.
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this natural-color image of a whiting event off the west coast of Great Bahama Bank on April 4, 2015. Whiting events generally continue for a few days to three months; the event shown here lasted for about 2 months before fading away.
In a recent attempt to much better comprehend what causes whiting occasions, a group of University of South Florida researchers, led by Hu, established a machine knowing model that examined thousands of satellite images of the Bahama Banks collected by NASAs Aqua satellite between 2003-2020. The majority of striking, the group observed what they called a “mysterious” increase in the total area impacted by whiting events, which increased from an average of about 25 square kilometers in 2003 to as much as 300-350 square kilometers in 2014-2015.
” But in truth, there is no clinical agreement on what causes them,” described Chuanmin Hu, an oceanographer at the University of South Florida.
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this natural-color image of a whiting occasion off the west coast of Great Bahama Bank on April 4, 2015. The brilliant spots– whitings– are surrounded by shallow water. Whiting events typically continue for a few days to three months; the event revealed here lasted for about 2 months before fading away.
In a current attempt to better comprehend what causes whiting occasions, a team of University of South Florida scientists, led by Hu, established a maker knowing model that evaluated thousands of satellite pictures of the Bahama Banks collected by NASAs Aqua satellite in between 2003-2020. In doing so, the research study team put together the longest and most detailed month-to-month, seasonal, and annual records of Bahama Bank whiting events ever developed, according to Hu. The outcomes were recently published in Remote Sensing of Environment.
The researchers reported plain seasonal patterns in the timing of whiting occasions, with substantially more of them taking place in the spring and winter. They discovered big variations in the size of private whiting spots, from 0.1 to 226 square kilometers, with the average size being 2.4 square kilometers for the Great Bahama Bank, approximately the size of 450 American football fields.
Many striking, the group observed what they called a “mystical” boost in the overall area impacted by whiting occasions, which increased from an average of about 25 square kilometers in 2003 to as much as 300-350 square kilometers in 2014-2015. After 2015, the total area impacted started to decrease slowly, going back to about 25 square kilometers by 2020. The image above programs an occasion during the peak of whiting activity in January 2015.
” I wish I could inform you why we saw that peak in activity, however were not there yet,” said Hu. “We do see some intriguing relationships in between ecological conditions, such as the pH, the salinity of water, and the habits of currents and winds, however we cant yet say what exact mechanical, biological, or chemical processes were responsible for that peak in activity. Eventually, we need to do more field experiments and pair that with remote noticing research study like this to much better understand the formation procedures.”
NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat information from the U.S. Geological Survey.
