Context New satellite technology Day/Night Band is being used by scientists to find glow-in-the-dark milky seas of marine lore.
About Milky Sea effect
The Milky Sea effect refers to an unusual marine phenomenon in the ocean in which a large amount of sea water appears to glow brightly (eerie blue glow)at night.
Also called mareel, the milky sea is caused by bioluminescent bacteria, billions of trillions of them, that live throughout the water column from the surface to the sea floor.
Some point out that Mareel is typically caused by Noctiluca scintillans (popularly known as “sea sparkle”), a dinoflagellate that glows when disturbed and is found in oceans throughout much of the world.
Bioluminescent bacteria are light-producing bacteria that are predominantly present in sea water, marine sediments, the surface of decomposing fish and in the gut of marine animals.
Stress, caused by the movement of the sea and waves, leads the plankton to emit light, or bioluminescence as a defence mechanism in a similar way to some fireflies.
Such occurrences glow brightly enough at night to be visible from satellites orbiting Earth.
In 2005, scientists announced that for the first time, they had obtained photographic evidence of this glow.
Between 1915 and 1993, 235 sightings of milky seas were documented, most of which are concentrated in the northwestern Indian Ocean and near Indonesia.
The luminescent glow is concentrated on the surface of the ocean and does not mix evenly throughout the water column.
