Chlorophyll, we learn about it in grade school and know it resides in plants, but really, if you’re like me, you may not think too much about it. I certainly wasn’t pondering until my brother Todd Thurlow sent me some of his exciting new eyeonlakeo publications.
These newer publications include: 1. Movie Sea Surface Temperatures and 2. Movie Chlorophyll. Even for the non-scientist type, they really are fascinating. The one that caught my eye is “movie 2.” revealing color-coded levels of chlorophyll swirling around Florida’s waters from June 2019, to May 2020. Like rainbow liquid fire, formations twirl and dance around our peninsular home. And what a home it is!
Todd points out, that If you watch closely, there is an eddy that begins off of Ft Meyers with an offshore “puff of red.” (10/22/2019 at 0:11 on the video). This eddy swirls all the way through November!
Then there’s “movie 2. sea surface temperature” with the weird gyrating underwater loop.
Bizarre! What was that?
Todd:
“The loop seemed to be drifting southeast like a big underwater hurricane heading toward the west coast of Florida. (SEE IMAGES BELOW YOU-TUBE VIDEOS) After 9/5, it is blocked by clouds so the images don’t show it all. Day’s later an eddy forms off of Ft. Meyers. I actually have no idea if there was red tide at this time. Was there? I’ll have to look later but this is interesting. Maybe these will explain something. Are these underwater hurricanes, so to speak, picking up the deep nutrients and pushing them to shore? Pulling nutrients offshore and returning them later?
Another interesting point, which ties into my sea surface temperature movie – two days before, on 9/3/2019, the SST movie shows a “belch” of warmer and cooler water traveling north from the Yucatan and Cuba right before the chlorophyll loop current shows up.
Once again, maybe the scientist can explain….”
The untold secrets, temperature and chlorophyll. Take a look a both videos below! What do you think is going on?
1. Movie Sea Surface Temperatures
(Link to Sea Surface Temperature video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pHmdFrxvHk&feature=youtu.be)
2. Movie Chlorophyll
(Link to chlorophyll video Todd Thurlow: https://youtu.be/PuPHQKRetQ4)
IMAGES
*A series of images from the movie showing the loop current and the eddy that Todd was describing: 
Florida Chlorophyll a and Martin County Chlorophyll a – MODIS (Terra)The “Florida Chlorophyll a” and “Martin County Chlorophyll a” products pull localized imagery from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov. Eyeonlokeo.com queries two layers from the MODIS sensor on the Terra Satellite, cropping the imagery in separate products for Florida and Martin County. The queries pull the CorrectedReflectance_Bands721 (to show land and clouds), layered with the Chlorophyll_A bands (to show concentrations of chlorophyll in the ocean). Note that a concentration of chlorophyll does not indicate a Harmful Algae Bloom (HAB). These layers are provided to allow users to easily monitor the relationship, if any, between the concentration of chlorophyll off the Florida coasts and discharges from Lake Okeechobee through the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers. The “Martin County Chlorophyll a” product goes a step further by querying the South Florida Water Management District’s (SFWMD) online DBHydro database (www.sfwmd.gov/science-data/dbhydro). A script pulls the discharge data for the S-80 structure at the St. Lucie canal. S-80 is the spillway located adjacent to the St. Lucie Locks on the C-44 Canal. It is only one of several spillways that empty into the St. Lucie River but it is the terminus of the C-44 canal that carries discharge water from S-308, located at Port Mayaca, together with C-44 basin runoff to S-80 at the St. Lucie Locks. The daily discharge data is added to the bottom of each image. When discharge rates are high at S-80, a large plume of chlorophyll can usually be seen off of the St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County. The plume often moves south close to shore but further from shore the Gulf Stream carries the plume north.Additional layer information from gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov: “The MODIS Chlorophyll a layer provides the near-surface concentration of chlorophyll a in milligrams of chlorophyll pigment per cubic meter (mg/m3) in the ocean. Chlorophyll is a light harvesting pigment found in most photosynthetic organisms. In the ocean, phytoplankton all contain the chlorophyll pigment, which has a greenish color. Derived from the Greek words phyto (plant) and plankton (made to wander or drift), phytoplankton are microscopic organisms that live in watery environments, both salty and fresh. Some phytoplankton are bacteria, some are protists, and most are single-celled plants. The concentration of chlorophyll a is used as an index of phytoplankton biomass. Phytoplankton fix carbon through photosynthesis, taking in dissolved carbon dioxide in the sea water and producing oxygen, enabling phytoplankton to grow. Changes in the amount of phytoplankton indicate the change in productivity of the ocean and as marine phytoplankton capture almost an equal amount of carbon as does photosynthesis by land vegetation, it provides an ocean link to global climate change modeling. The MODIS Chlorophyll a product is therefore a useful product for assessing the health of the ocean. The presence of phytoplankton indicates sufficient nutrient conditions for phytoplankton to flourish, but harmful algal blooms (HABs) can result when high concentrations of phytoplankton produced toxins build up. Known as red tides, blue-green algae or cyanobacteria, harmful algal blooms have severe impacts on human health, aquatic ecosystems and the economy. Chlorophyll features can also be used to trace oceanographic currents, atmospheric jets/streams and upwelling/downwelling/river plumes. Chlorophyll concentration is also useful for studying the earth’s climate system as it is plays an integral role in the Global Carbon Cycle. More phytoplankton in the ocean may result in a higher capture rate of carbon dioxide into the ocean and help cool the planet.”
~Todd Thurlow: (http://eyeonlakeo.com/Readme.html)
~Enjoy these, and all Todd’s work, at (http://eyeonlakeo.com)