Milky sea: The light from a

The light from a milky sea is sometimes described as white, but it is actually blue. It may appear white when detected by human night-time vision, using rod photoreceptors that do not distinguish colors. We were recently able to capture the first satellite images of a milky sea -- and of bioluminescence at all, to our knowledge (Miller, et al. 2005). The image above, prepared by Steve Miller of the Naval Research Lab, shows a composite of two different earth atlases (day and night) with ... 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. For over a century, mariners have reported an eerily beautiful phenomenon they called the " milky sea " - enormous patches of glowing water that sometimes persist for several nights in a row. It wasn't until 2005 that this phenomenon was finally confirmed - in the form of photographs taken from a satellite in low-Earth orbit. A new database compiling over 400 sightings of a mysterious ocean phenomenon known as ‘ milky seas’ could help scientists soon predict when the odd ocean glows occur.