The whole appearance of the ocean waslike a plain covered with snow.
These events are called milky seas.
They are a rare nocturnal phenomenon in which the oceans surface emits a steady bright glow.
They can cover thousands of square miles and, thanks to the colorful accounts of 19th-century mariners like Capt.
Kingman, milky seas are a well-known part of maritime folklore.
Im aprofessor of atmospheric sciencespecializing insatellitesused to study Earth.
Via a state-of-the-art generation of satellites, my colleagues and I have developed a new wayto detect milky seas.
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Luminous bacteria cause the particles they colonize to glow.
Researchers think the purpose of this glow could beto attract fish that eat them.
That makes a milky sea.
While biologists know a lot about these bacteria, what causes these massive displays remains a mystery.
The other panels show sea surface temperature, ocean currents and chlorophyll.
Trouble is, milky seas are so elusive that it has been almost impossible to sample them.
This is where my research comes into play.
It took years of studying Day/Night Band imagery to be able to interpret what we were seeing.
We compared it with images from the nights before and after.
While the clouds and airglow features changed, the swoosh remained.
We had found a milky sea!
And now we knew how to look for them.
Steven D. Miller/NOAA
The aha!
moment that unveiled the full potential of the Day/Night Band came in 2019.
The imagery from the new sensors provided a level of detail and clarity that I hadnt imagined possible.
I watched in amazement as the glow slowly drifted and morphed with the ocean currents.
As for the estimated number of bacteria involved?
Approximately 100 billion trillion cells nearly the total estimated number of starsin the observable universe!
Most happened in the very same waters where mariners have been reporting them for centuries.
Perhaps the most practical revelation is how long a milky sea can last.
While some last only a few days, the one near Java carried on for over a month.
That means that there is a chance to deploy research craft to these remote events while they are happening.
If, like Capt.
