Abstract
Since 1992, a local receiver for NOAA weather satellite (AVHRR) images has been used at
IOS, Sidney, BC to map the sporadic bright patches in western North American (Canadian and
adjacent US) coastal waters, which indicate the occurrence of intense plankton blooms. These
events represent high concentrations of bloom organisms over wide areas, but have gone largely
unobserved and unreported before the start of this program. A test of the software developed for
this work using imagery collected in Korea and Taiwan, detected a similar event in the Yellow Sea
in the fall of 1996. In September 1997, data from Seawifs became available, and are also being
received at the IOS station. This imagery shows the existence of blooms over a wider range of
seasons and in the central Gulf of Alaska. Nature of events is being confirmed by water samples
and in-water observations.
