World Water Viz Map

[SYDSIDE]

Hi Folks,

I found a link that seems quite useful for dive travel planning. It's a satellite composite map of world-wide Ocean Chlorophyll levels (click on the map to get a very detailed enlargement). It seems to perfectly match dive visibility levels (at leat at the various site I've dived). Based on the info, Easter Island (in the purple colur scale) would seem to be the best viz on the planet (must be close to 100+/300ft). At the other end of the scale, Northern Europe and most of the US looks like Pea-soup (with a corresponding soup-green scale). Here in Sydney we sit in the light-blue to darker-light-blue scale, which fits well to the 10-15m (sometimes 20m) usual viz. Obviously the levels would not be constant, varying from week to week, and turbidly would play a large part in addition to Chlorophyll. However as a general guide it seems quite interesting.


The Link is http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html

 

[fan(t)a(s)tic]

Not bad, altough it just showed me that diving where I live sucks ;-)

From my limited experience, I can confirm that the places I've been to had about the vis that this map would suggest.

I'm just happy my next trip is to the red sea!

Can anybody get the zoom feature to work? No matter where I click, the pic zooms to the same place, which incidentially isn't what I clicked

take care

fan(t)a(s)tic

 

[SYDSIDE]

Not bad, altough it just showed me that diving where I live sucks ;-)
Can anybody get the zoom feature to work? No matter where I click, the pic zooms to the same place, which incidentially isn't what I clicked
fan(t)a(s)tic

Clicking on the map opens the large detailed pic - which is about 4-5 times the width of your screen - then just use the scroll bars to navigate

 

[Walter]

Interesting, but there are many factors besides chlorophyll concentration that determine visibility.

 

[fan(t)a(s)tic]

Clicking on the map opens the large detailed pic - which is about 4-5 times the width of your screen - then just use the scroll bars to navigate

And I thought I knew all there was about my browser... :bonk:

not quite so fan(t)a(s)tic

 

[SYDSIDE]

Interesting, but there are many factors besides chlorophyll concentration that determine visibility.

I'm sure you're correct and I'm only comparing the map to the dozen or so locations I've dived in Oz and Asia/Pacific but it does seem a REALLY close match to those locations. Is it possible that the other factors (like turbitity and pollutants) give food to the chlorophyll filled critters and increase their number?

 

[jviehe]

I don't know. I dive in the florida caves, and they show up black on this map, even though they are crystal clear a lot of the time.