Our eyes ignore most microscopic things but details are more important than we believe to be. A recent study published in the Science Advances journal reveals the importance of phytoplankton. The microbes found in the Southern Ocean are extremely important when it comes to the formation of clouds. The army of tiny microbes can be moved from their aquatic homes and into the sky by wind. Once the microbes make their way into the sky, they help water condensation and make clouds brighter by reflecting more sunlight.
And while phytoplankton is a mystery for most of us, the universes ignored by us and hidden underwater reveal themselves in a number of sizes, shapes and light beams. Phytoplankton is a group of photosynthesizing organism that exists in the upper layer of the oceans and other fresh waters. They have a great capacity of getting together in order to create shiny clouds that look incredibly beautiful and which make the sky brighter. These microbes are responsible for about half the cloud droplets which cover the Southern Ocean during summertime.
These organisms rely on light to populate the sea. During the summertime, when the temperature of the water rises, phytoplankton effects the formation of clouds.
Daniel McCoy, doctoral student in atmospheric science at the University of Washington and one of the authors of the study said that the clouds covering the Southern Ocean reflect more sunlight in the summer than they would in absence of the plankton blooms.
The beautiful bright clouds that reflect the light coming from organisms living deep inside the ocean create incredible amounts of energy. This light, which is known as a product of the small sea, reflects around 4 watts of energy coming from the sun for every square meter. This is a huge amount of power, when you take into consideration the fact that it’s coming from such small creatures. The importance of phytoplankton and the microorganisms themselves show us exactly how the size doesn’t actually matter. It is the strength coming in from these armies of small creatures gathering together in order to become incredibly strong survivors is what matters.
An instrument created by NASA over 10 years in the past called an imaging spectroradiometer and which was used to analyze the size of droplets coming in from the all of the skies surrounding the Earth was used to reveal this incredible fact.
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