Honing in on bioluminescent milky seas from space

Abstract

Milky seas are a rare form of marine bioluminescence where the nocturnal ocean surface produces a widespread, uniform and steady whitish glow. Mariners have compared their appearance to a daylit snowfield that extends to all horizons. Encountered most often in remote waters of the northwest Indian Ocean and the Maritime Continent, milky seas have eluded rigorous scientific inquiry, and thus little is known about their composition, formation mechanism, and role within the marine ecosystem. The Day/Night Band (DNB), a new-generation spaceborne low-light imager, holds potential to detect milky seas, but the capability has yet to be demonstrated. Here, we show initial examples of DNB-detected milky seas based on a multi-year (2012–2021) search. The massive bodies of glowing ocean, sometimes exceeding 100,000 km2 in size, persist for days to weeks, drift within doldrums amidst the prevailing sea surface currents, and align with narrow ranges of sea surface temperature and biomass in a way that suggests water mass isolation. These findings show how spaceborne assets can now help guide research vessels toward active milky seas to learn more about them.

Bioluminescence – The Vibrant Glow of Nature and its Chemical Mechanisms

“…Another indication comes from the co-option of bioluminescence for other ecological functions; as oxygen levels stabilized and became less toxic, bioluminescence may have adapted to serve various purposes, [19,20] ) Bottom: Compilation of historical (1796-2010) ship reports and satellite detections of large scale marine bioluminescence. [21] leading to the wide array of bioluminescent strategies observed today. Furthermore, the broad distribution of bioluminescence across various unrelated taxa might also reflect this ancient, shared survival strategy.…”

“…[120] even visible from space. [19,21] The most common and best studied bioluminescent dinoflagellate is Noctiluca scintillans (formerly Noctiluca militaris). Reaching sizes of 1-2 mm, which is remarkable for a unicellular organism, it has no armor and only one flagellum.…”

“…The illuminated area is about 400 km long. (Photo composite made by Steven Haddock and Steven Miller[19,20] ) Bottom: Compilation of historical (1796-2010) ship reports and satellite detections of large scale marine bioluminescence [21].…”

Exploring VIIRS Night Light Long-Term Time Series with CNN/SI for Urban Change Detection and Aerosol Monitoring

“…In particular, the VIIRS Day/Night Band (DNB) enabled unprecedented capabilities in low light imaging at night, with the ability to detect faint lights emitted from the atmosphere or the so-called air glows at a radiance level on the order of 1.0 × 10 −10 W/(cm 2 -sr). Recent studies also suggest that it might be able to detect bio-luminescence if the instrument is well calibrated [1]. This is in addition to the well-publicized fishing boat detection [2], light outages [3], and night fires which are at higher radiance levels.…”

An Improved Method for Destriping of VIIRS Day/Night Band Images

“…The daytime VIIRS DNB is less useful as many narrow VIIRS VNIR bands provide high-quality observation data. In the absence of these narrow bands at nighttime, the broad VIIRS DNB channel provides high-quality nighttime observation data suitable for many oceanic, atmospheric, and terrestrial applications, such as nocturnal fire detection [2], boat detection [3], identification of sea surface oil slicks [4], tropical cyclone tracking [5], algal bloom patch and sediment dynamics observation [6], oceanic internal solitary waves detection [7], [8], and bioluminescent milky sea observations [9]. The nighttime light data such as Black marble products [10] generated from the nightly VIIRS DNB images are increasingly utilized in many critical applications, including socioeconomic studies [11], natural disaster assessment [12], and nighttime light pollution monitoring [13].…”