Global map of chlorophyll concentration in the oceans reflecting phytoplankton biomass. Ocean phytoplankton chemically fix carbon through photosynthesis and capture about an equal amount of carbon as land vegetation. The data is derived via the NASA MODIS instrument measuring ocean color (here over 1 month in March 2023) and converting it to concentration via an empirical relationship. Chlorophyll concentration is also used to monitor global climate change. The custom-made Scientific colour map ‘breda‘ is used to represent data accurately and to all readers.
- Creator: Fabio Crameri
- Original version: 28.05.2023
- This version: 16.10.2023
- License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri presenting NASA MODIS data is available via the open-access s-ink.org repository.
- Related reference: –
- Alternative map projections
- Alternative colour map versions
- Light & dark background versions
- Transparent background
- Perceptually uniform
- Colour-vision deficiency friendly
- Readable in black&white
Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!
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Thank you for sharing this beautiful colormap. It will be used đŸ™‚
Yet, to be more intuitive, the dark blue color should represent clear, blue waters at low chlorophyll concentrations (unlike the example given above); whereas the bright, greenish color is typical for algae-rich waters and high chlorophyll concentrations. To illustrate that, see some satellite imagery and data visualizations here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30783
Thank you for your feedback! We agree that green is more representative for high Chlorophyll concentration. While we already had highlighted high concentration values with green in dark-background variants of the figure, we did not have a suitable Scientific colour map at hand to represent high values in dark-green for light-background variants. Now, following your feedback, we created a new Scientific colour palette to show high values in dark green for light-background versions too. Thank you!