Milky sea: PhenomenonWhy in News The

Milky Sea PhenomenonWhy in News The scientists are using new satellite technology Day/Night Band to find glow-in-the-dark milky seas. Key Points About: Also called mareel, it is a rare form of marine bioluminescence where the nocturnal ocean surface produces a widespread, uniform and steady whitish glow. Bioluminescence is light produced by a chemical reaction within a living organism. About two or three milky seas occur per year worldwide, mostly in the waters of the northwest Indian Ocean ... 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. 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 ... 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.