acquired August 24, 2013
download large image (698 KB, JPEG, 1440x960)
This photograph from the
International Space Station highlights a late-summer “whiting event”
visible across much of Lake Ontario (one of North America’s Great
Lakes). Such events commonly occur in late summer and are caused by
changes in water temperature, which allows fine particles of calcium
carbonate to form in the water column. Increased photosynthesis by
phytoplankton and other microscopic marine life can also reduce the
amount of carbon dioxide in the water column, changing the acidity and
allowing calcium carbonate to form. These particles of calcium carbonate
cause the characteristic lightening (“whiting”) of the water color
observed.
Lake Ontario—like the Great Lakes Erie, Huron, and Superior—is
roughly divided between the United States and Canada. The USA side of
Lake Ontario has its shoreline in the state of New York, while its
Canadian shoreline lies within the province of Ontario. The city of
Kingston, Ontario, is visible near the Saint Lawrence River outflow from
the lake. Several other landscape features of New York State are
visible in the image, including the Finger Lakes region to the west of
Syracuse. To the northeast of Syracuse, the dark wooded slopes of the
Adirondack Mountains are visible at image upper right. Patchy white
cloud cover obscures much of the land surface to the west of Lake
Ontario.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured an image of the whiting event on the same day, August 24, 2013.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story identified the
discoloration of the water as a bloom of phytoplankton or harmful algae.
Such events can produce stunning color changes, as shown here. However, scientists working on the water in the area provided information to verify that it was instead a whiting event.
Astronaut photograph ISS036-E-35635
was acquired on August 24, 2013, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a
50 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations
experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space
Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 36 crew. It has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab
to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest
value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely
available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and
cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by William L. Stefanov, Jacobs at NASA-JSC.
- Instrument:
- ISS - Digital Camera
NASA: USA - Lake Ontario - Whiting Event - 09.09.13
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