Identifying Meteorologic and Oceanic Conditions Contributing to a Unique Phytoplankton Bloom Occurrence in Micronesia During October 2013

Acker, James; Hunzinger, Alexis; Kuring, Norman (2022-09-10). "Identifying Meteorologic and Oceanic Conditions Contributing to a Unique Phytoplankton Bloom Occurrence in Micronesia During October 2013". Earth. 3 (3): 951–974. doi:10.3390/earth3030056. ISSN 2673-4834.

Abstract: On the first several days of October 2013, daily chlorophyll a (chl a) data acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aqua satellite detected a marked increase in chlorophyll a concentrations (chl a) in the vicinity of Chuuk Lagoon and the Federated States of Micronesia. Such an increase, likely indicative of a phytoplankton bloom, has not been observed in this location at any other time during the MODIS-Aqua mission, which commenced in 2002 and continues to present. Examination of sea surface wind data from the Modern Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) reanalysis dataset indicated that the region experienced a sequence of alternating elevated and very low wind speed events prior to the observation of the bloom. The influence of the winds can be seen in MERRA-2 sea surface skin temperature data. Elevated windspeeds for several days likely induced a mixing of deeper waters with higher nutrient levels to the surface, which was followed by stratification and phytoplankton growth during low wind intervals and finally transport induced by a brief high windspeed event. Analysis of hourly MERRA-2 maximum windspeed data over a 40-year period indicated that this sequence was climatologically rare.

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