Persistent Blue Spiral in the Gulf of Oman

Trailspotter

Senior Member.
While browsing recent Earth images on NASA EOSDIS Worldview, I spotted a blue spiral in the Gulf of Oman.

The image above was taken by the Terra satellite on May 4, 2015, but the spiral can be seen on the images taken by both Terra and Aqua satellites between April 23 and May 8. Here is an animation made from the daily images from April 29 to May 4:
PBEiGO.gif

It is not a new phenomenon, similar blue spirals have been captured previously by the MODIS satellites and described in Earth Observatory blogs. One of these was spotted south of Africa on December 26, 2011:

The Eddy and the Plankton (February 11, 2012)
The ocean has storms and weather that rival the size and scale of tropical cyclones. But rather than destruction, these storms—better known as eddies—are more likely to bring life to the sea...and often in places that are otherwise barren.

Certain types of eddies can promote blooms of phytoplankton. As these water masses stir the ocean, they draw nutrients up from the deep, fertilizing the surface waters to create blooms of microscopic, plant-like organisms in the open ocean, which is relatively barren compared to coastal waters.
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The other was spotted south of Australia on December 30, 2013:

Spiral of Plankton (January 9, 2014)
As the close-up image shows, an eddy is outlined by a milky green phytoplankton bloom. Eddies are masses of water that typically spin off of larger currents and rotate in whirlpool-like fashion. They can stretch for hundreds of kilometers and last for months. As these water masses stir the ocean, they can draw nutrients up from the deep, fertilizing the surface waters to create blooms in the open ocean. Other times, they carry in nutrients spun off of other currents.
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Learn somethin new every day.. I figured there was a method for stirring up the oceanic waters (rivers and streams have similar features) Ive just never seen or heard of one until now.. thats amazing! Ive done some digging but havent come across anything.. does anyone know if one of these Edis has been spotted during a red tide or does the fact that its a red tide preclude its existence? Im assuming that they would since these edis also oxygenate the water as they bring up the nutrients, and red tides usually deplete the dissolved oxygen. Any ideas?
 
I would imagine that red tides would not be associated with eddies because red tides are largely a coastal phenomenon, and the type of deep water eddies like those above would be disrupted by the littoral environment. Generally at the coast there are enough nutrients present eddies wouldn't be required to create a bloom.
 
Wiki indicates the increasing frequency of red tides is thought to be caused by a combination of increased nutrient load, primarily from agricultural runoff, and warming SSTs, which meshes with what I've read elsewhere.
 
Wiki indicates the increasing frequency of red tides is thought to be caused by a combination of increased nutrient load, primarily from agricultural runoff, and warming SSTs, which meshes with what I've read elsewhere.

Aye.. thats what sparked my curiosity. The main process with these eddies is churning the waters so that the nutrients at the bottom, come closer to the surface. Seeing as this one is in the Gulf of Oman.. while it isnt EXACTLY coastal, is pretty close given the size... might cause a phytoplankton bloom.

Although given what youve just said, I can see itd be much closer to land because of the agricultural run offs etc. Thanks Ghost.
 
I actually was looking for recent satellite images of contrails between 30° N and 30° S in the EOSDIS Worldview (there are some), when I stumble upon this spiral. As soon as I saw it, I knew what it was, so it was not a "skydentify" subject. There was no apparent debunking angle either, but I saw a few connections to other Metabunk fora and decided to start a new thread here.

One connection is an analogy to the persistent contrail formation -- like the passing plane reveals the presence of necessary atmospheric conditions, the plankton bloom reveals the presence of the eddies in the Ocean, which otherwise would be invisible to the MODIS satellites.

A second connection is to geoengineering -- this is a nature's demonstration of the likely consequences of ocean fertilisation.

A third one is obvious -- a giant blue spiral in the ocean could be a "100% proof" of somebody's favourite CT.
 
I found a scientific paper suggesting that the eddy in the Gulf of Oman is a seasonal phenomenon:
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00171/28206/33894.pdf

A seasonal dipolar eddy near Ras Al Hamra (Sea of Oman)

L'Hegaret Pierre 1, *, Lacour Leo 1, Carton Xavier 1, 3, Roullet Guillaume 1, 3, Baraille Remy 2, Correard Stephanie 2

1 Univ Bretagne Occidentale, LPO, F-29200 Brest, France. 2 SHOM, F-31400 Toulouse, France. 3 Ifremer, france

* Corresponding author : Pierre L’Hégaret, email address : pierre.lhegaret@univ-brest.fr

Abstract :

Trajectories and hydrological data from two Argo floats indicate that warm and salty water at 200–300-m depths was ejected from the coast of Oman, near Ras al Hamra, in spring 2008, 2011, and 2012. This warm and salty water, Persian Gulf Water (PGW), once ejected from the coast, recirculated cyclonically in the western Sea of Oman, but also flowed eastward along the Iranian and Pakistani coasts. There, it was expelled seaward by mesoscale eddies as shown by other float data. Seasonal maps of salinity were computed from all available Argo floats; they showed that, in spring, PGW is present in the middle and north of the Sea of Oman, contrary to fall, when the salinity maxima lie southeast of Ras al Hadd. The ejection of PGW from Ras al Hamra is related here to the influence of a mesoscale dipolar eddy which often appears near this cape in spring. The time-averaged and empirical orthogonal functions of altimetric maps over 11 years for this season confirm the frequent presence and the persistence of this feature. From surface currents and hydrology, deep currents were computed via thermal wind balance, and the associated shear and strain fields were obtained. This deformation field is intense near Ras al Hamra, with an offshore direction. This flow structure associated with the mesoscale dipole explains PGW ejection from the coast. This observation suggests that PGW distribution in the Northern Arabian Sea can be strongly influenced by seasonal mesoscale eddies.

Keywords : Sea of Oman, Outflow, Eddies, Argo floats
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I looked for similar eddies in the Gulf of Oman in 2013 and 2014 but found none. Unfortunately, the EOSDIS Wordview does not go that far back to check if there were blue spirals in the satellite images from Spring 2008, 2011, and 2012. This can be checked by other means, but it will take a time.
 
A third one is obvious -- a giant blue spiral in the ocean could be a "100% proof" of somebody's favourite CT.
like this?
http://www.utaot.com/2013/01/21/an-...-interdimensional-vortex-in-the-gulf-of-aden/

Under the pretext that these Naval Forces were needed to protect the Gulf of Aden from Somalia pirates, Admiral Maksimov states in this report that accumulation is the largest of its kind in human history and that Russia is “prepared” to join the Americans in what world leaders consider an attack on our planet by “forces” previously unknown, but described as being “inter-dimensional” or “extraterrestrial.”
From earlier last month, this report continues, the Gulf of Aden vortex began an “extraordinary” series of “expansions” that for the first time since its discovery were preceded by earthquake activity. are important to note that the estimated 40-60 earthquakes occurring in the Gulf of Aden last month are also the first to have occurred in this region in modern history.
This report also all these earthquakes have ranged between 4.5 and 5.4 on the Richter scale and almost all are on or around 10 km depth and are “strangely” linked in timing to the mysterious “reappearance” of the South Equatorial Belt of Jupiter “disappeared” last May.
Though the information contained in this report is blacklisted from all major world media there can not be said of alternative news sites , some have speculated that the Gulf of Aden vortex may very well be a “Stargate” open our world to a dimension and / or world which we know nothing.
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