November 5, 2021 - Nor'easter Brings Color off Cape Cod

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An early-season nor’easter slammed New England in late October 2021,
bringing hurricane-force winds and substantial flooding to the region.
The unnamed storm became a “bomb cyclone” over the Atlantic Ocean when
its pressure dropped 24 millibars in less than 24 hours. On October 27,
The New York Times reported that “the winds, which gusted to 94 miles
per hour on Martha’s Vineyard in the pre-dawn hours, picked up a small
aircraft at the New Bedford Regional Airport, lifting it over a fence
and onto a roadway, and peeled the roof off an apartment building in
Quincy, Mass., snapping the eight-inch bolts that held it down.”

The storm brought a 3- to 4-foot storm surge, which washed onto coastal
areas and—along with torrential rain—caused substantial flooding,
especially in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. More than 80 percent of the
homes in the Cape and the Islands. The Cape Cod Times quoted the Upper
Cape Technical School Superintendent as saying, “I don’t think we quite
expected this. This is a hell of a storm”. Local media also reported
substantial beach erosion from the storm, with sand dunes either spread
across roads or washed away. In some areas, water and sand were said to
have created a type of sticky quicksand, making beach exploration
difficult.

On November 1, 2021, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image
centered on the Atlantic Ocean east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Swirls
of green stretch from the coastline for more than 200 miles (322 km)
out to sea.

Although it is not possible to state with certainty what exactly
creates the jewel-toned colors without taking a water sample, it is
possible to make an educated guess. Near-shore, this color is likely
primarily caused by sediment washed off the land and churned up from
the shallow coastal seabed by the vicious late October nor’easter.
Sediment appears tan in color when floating on the surface, but as it
sinks and disperses the visible color changes to green then blue or
black. The stain coloring the ocean’s water appears similar to the
coastal colors and so may well be sediment that has continued to float
near the surface. However, because sediment tends to sink fairly
quickly, it is likely that much of this color is caused by a bloom of
phytoplankton. These microscopic plant-like organisms live in these
waters year-round and, when conditions are just right, can reproduce
explosively to create large colonies that can be easily seen from
space. Sediment washed to sea could carry the nutrients that would spur
a late-autumn bloom.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 11/1/2021
Resolutions: 1km (160.8 KB), 500m (425.7 KB), 250m (895.5
KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-11-05

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