In early 2021, authorities warned about potentially toxic blooms at a popular recreational lake in New South Wales.
Since late January 2021, blue-green algae have spread across Lake Burrinjuck in New South Wales, Australia. Authorities issued warnings to stay out of the lake, which usually attracts many people for waterskiing and fishing around this time of the year.
On February 10, 2021, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured imagery of algae blooms in Lake Burrinjuck and the Murrumbidgee River.
Blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, typically appear as greenish clumps or scum on the surface of the water and have a strong musty odor. They occur naturally in modest numbers but can reproduce quickly under favorable circumstances—namely sufficient sunlight, stagnant water, and high amounts of dissolved nutrients, such as fertilizer runoff.
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Image via NASA Earth Observatory
