In the style of Van Gogh’s painting “Starry Night”, massive congregations of greenish phytoplankton swirl in the dark water around Gotland, a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea.
Population explosions, or blooms, of phytoplankton (primarily cyanobacteria) are common in the Baltic Sea and occur two times per year, once in the spring and once in the late summer.

This image, taken by Landsat 7 on July 13, 2005, won 1st place in the online “Earth as Art” competition to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Landsat satellite program.

Credit: NASA/GSFC/USGS EROS Data Center

Download High Resolution JPEG (4800×4800 pixels; 10.7 MB)

Download the corresponding KML file for use in Google Earth