NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite, launched on February 8, 2024, collects data on microscopic life in the ocean and particles in the air, advancing researchers’ understanding of issues including fisheries’ health, harmful algal blooms, air pollution, and wildfire smoke. With PACE, scientists also investigate how the ocean and atmosphere interact with each other and are affected by a changing climate. This image of West Africa and the Canary Islands was taken by PACE’s Ocean Color Instrument on May 4, 2024. In it are many elements the mission enables researchers to study—and that are represented in the PACE acronym. Blooms of phytoplankton (P) are seen as green colors off the coast. Tan dust aerosols (A) blow from western Africa over the Atlantic Ocean, which is dotted with white clouds (C), some of which show distinctive von Kármán vortices to the southwest of the Canary Islands. Minerals carried within the dust deliver key nutrients, such as iron, to sustain life at the base of the ocean ecosystem (E).
