Waters off the British Isles sprang to life with colorful swirls in early April 2025.
Waters off the British Isles sprang to life with colorful swirls in early April 2025. The phenomenon commonly occurs in these North Atlantic waters in spring, but the view from orbit demands the cooperation of clouds.
Clouds stayed well offshore across the archipelago on April 7, 2025. That afternoon, the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the Suomi NPP satellite passed over the region and captured this striking image of the waters around the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Some of the colorful swirls, especially those close to shore, are likely due to sediment and other materials suspended in the water. Sediments are carried to sea by large rivers such as the Severn and get churned up from the seafloor by strong currents and waves. Satellite-based research has shown that in the Irish Sea, these mineral particles can exhibit complex spatial and seasonal patterns.
Read more at NASA Earth Observatory
Image: NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership.
