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November 5, 2021 - Nor'easter Brings Color off Cape Cod
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An early-season nor’easter slammed New England in late October 2021, bringing hurricane-force winds and substantial flooding to the region. The unnamed storm became a “bomb cyclone” over the Atlantic Ocean when its pressure dropped 24 millibars in less than 24 hours. On October 27, The New York Times reported that “the winds, which gusted to 94 miles per hour on Martha’s Vineyard in the pre-dawn hours, picked up a small aircraft at the New Bedford Regional Airport, lifting it over a fence and onto a roadway, and peeled the roof off an apartment building in Quincy, Mass., snapping the eight-inch bolts that held it down.”
The storm brought a 3- to 4-foot storm surge, which washed onto coastal areas and—along with torrential rain—caused substantial flooding, especially in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. More than 80 percent of the homes in the Cape and the Islands. The Cape Cod Times quoted the Upper Cape Technical School Superintendent as saying, “I don’t think we quite expected this. This is a hell of a storm”. Local media also reported substantial beach erosion from the storm, with sand dunes either spread across roads or washed away. In some areas, water and sand were said to have created a type of sticky quicksand, making beach exploration difficult.
On November 1, 2021, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image centered on the Atlantic Ocean east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Swirls of green stretch from the coastline for more than 200 miles (322 km) out to sea.
Although it is not possible to state with certainty what exactly creates the jewel-toned colors without taking a water sample, it is possible to make an educated guess. Near-shore, this color is likely primarily caused by sediment washed off the land and churned up from the shallow coastal seabed by the vicious late October nor’easter. Sediment appears tan in color when floating on the surface, but as it sinks and disperses the visible color changes to green then blue or black. The stain coloring the ocean’s water appears similar to the coastal colors and so may well be sediment that has continued to float near the surface. However, because sediment tends to sink fairly quickly, it is likely that much of this color is caused by a bloom of phytoplankton. These microscopic plant-like organisms live in these waters year-round and, when conditions are just right, can reproduce explosively to create large colonies that can be easily seen from space. Sediment washed to sea could carry the nutrients that would spur a late-autumn bloom.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 11/1/2021
Resolutions:
1km (160.8 KB), 500m (425.7 KB), 250m (895.5 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
An early-season nor’easter slammed New England in late October 2021, bringing hurricane-force winds and substantial flooding to the region. The unnamed storm became a “bomb cyclone” over the Atlantic Ocean when its pressure dropped 24 millibars in less than 24 hours. On October 27, The New York Times reported that “the winds, which gusted to 94 miles per hour on Martha’s Vineyard in the pre-dawn hours, picked up a small aircraft at the New Bedford Regional Airport, lifting it over a fence and onto a roadway, and peeled the roof off an apartment building in Quincy, Mass., snapping the eight-inch bolts that held it down.”
The storm brought a 3- to 4-foot storm surge, which washed onto coastal areas and—along with torrential rain—caused substantial flooding, especially in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. More than 80 percent of the homes in the Cape and the Islands. The Cape Cod Times quoted the Upper Cape Technical School Superintendent as saying, “I don’t think we quite expected this. This is a hell of a storm”. Local media also reported substantial beach erosion from the storm, with sand dunes either spread across roads or washed away. In some areas, water and sand were said to have created a type of sticky quicksand, making beach exploration difficult.
On November 1, 2021, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image centered on the Atlantic Ocean east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Swirls of green stretch from the coastline for more than 200 miles (322 km) out to sea.
Although it is not possible to state with certainty what exactly creates the jewel-toned colors without taking a water sample, it is possible to make an educated guess. Near-shore, this color is likely primarily caused by sediment washed off the land and churned up from the shallow coastal seabed by the vicious late October nor’easter. Sediment appears tan in color when floating on the surface, but as it sinks and disperses the visible color changes to green then blue or black. The stain coloring the ocean’s water appears similar to the coastal colors and so may well be sediment that has continued to float near the surface. However, because sediment tends to sink fairly quickly, it is likely that much of this color is caused by a bloom of phytoplankton. These microscopic plant-like organisms live in these waters year-round and, when conditions are just right, can reproduce explosively to create large colonies that can be easily seen from space. Sediment washed to sea could carry the nutrients that would spur a late-autumn bloom.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 11/1/2021
Resolutions:
1km (160.8 KB), 500m (425.7 KB), 250m (895.5 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
