Sizing Up the Sargassum Belt - NASA Science
Sargassum, a type of brown floating algae, hasshifted its range in recent decades, thinning out in the North Atlantic’s Sargasso Sea while proliferating in the tropical Atlantic. That trend, underway since. . .
Sargassum, a type of brown floating algae, hasshifted its range in recent decades, thinning out in the North Atlantic’s Sargasso Sea while proliferating in the tropical Atlantic. That trend, underway since 2011, continued in 2026 as the algae, commonly known as a type ofseaweed, reached its annual peak in June across a stretch of ocean known as the Great AtlanticSargassumBelt. The belt’sSargassumabundance in June 2026 made it the second-highestSargassumyear in the satellite record, slightly behind 2025, according to scientists at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Marine Science. Regionally, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico) both hit record highs, according to USF’s June 2026Sargassumoutlook. The western and eastern Caribbean saw 3. 6 and 9 million metric tons, respectively, while the Gulf saw 5 million metric tons—nearly double its previous record, also set in 2025. “The belt is a basin-scale phenomenon that can have devastating local-scale impacts throughout the Caribbean and Gulf, and satellite observations are the only method that captures both scales on a daily basis,” said Brian Barnes, a marine scientist at theOptical Oceanography Laboratoryat USF. “The tracking done by our lab helps communities know the current extent of Sargassum and prepare for what's to come. ”In moderate amounts in the open ocean,Sargassumprovides habitat for turtles, invertebrates, fish, and birds, and adds oxygen to the water through photosynthesis. But too much of it near shore can tangle and suffocate marine life, and mats that sink can smother corals and seagrasses. On beaches, decomposingSargassumreleases hydrogen sulfide, a rotten-egg-smelling gas that’s a potential problem for both ecosystems and tourism. The map above showsSargassumdensity in the tropical Atlantic Ocean in June 2026. Red and orange areas are whereSargassumdensities were the highest. Note that although the “belt” appears continuous, discreteSargassummats are scattered across the ocean surface. The map is based on satellite measurements of how much of the ocean surface was covered by the seaweed, averaged per pixel across all observations made in June by theOCI(Ocean Color Instrument) on NASA’sPACE(Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) satellite. Ocean currents and winds shape theSargassumbelt, which, despite the patchiness, stretches nearly continuously from West Africa to the Gulf and holds a fairly steady “width” from the western tropical Atlantic westward, explained Chuanmin Hu, also an optical oceanographer at USF. The ocean currents have also spared Florida's west coast from inundation this summer, while delivering large amounts of seaweed to the Florida Keys and the state's east coast. The bulk of theSargassum, however, is visible in the Caribbean Sea, shown in detail above, whereproblems associated with inundationhave been more severe, Hu said. Data for the maps were provided by Lin Qi, an oceanographer at NOAA's Center for Satellite Applications and Research, who has been working to generateSargassummaps based on data from PACE, which was launched in February 2024. The work extends that of Qi and colleagues at USF’s Optical Oceanography Laboratory. This team first developedSargassumdetection techniques usingMODIS(Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s long-runningTerraandAquasatellites andVIIRS(Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on theNOAA-20satellite—data that have been a key component of USF’sSargassumWatch Systemand of research into the seaweed’s longer-term trends. Satellites detectSargassumby its signals in reflected sunlight. Because of its plant structure and chlorophyll pigments,Sargassumreflects more near-infrared light than water. Scientists flag pixels where the reflectance spikes above the levels produced by plain seawater, and then they use the strength of this spike to estimateSargassumdensity, which refers to the fraction of ocean surface covered by the seaweed in each pixel. Density estimates can then be converted into biomass, or the total weight ofSargassumpresent within a pixel, which is how the longer-term trends in the chart below are tracked. The chart above uses the continuous MODIS record since March 2000 to show howSargassumbiomass across the Great AtlanticSargassumBelt has changed through June 2026. Notice the uptick beginning around 2011, when the belt was first developing, and the seasonal dips in winter and peaks in spring and summer. The record high in July 2025 stands out, followed by the quick rise in early 2026—especially in the first four months of the year—that culminated in the year’s peak in June. More recent observations, not yet reflected in the chart, indicateSargassumbiomass declined through the following month of July. “Since the initial appearance of the Great AtlanticSargassumBelt in 2011, the totalSargassumamount in the Atlantic Ocean has increased substantially, more than doubling every five years,” Hu said. He added that the exact mechanism is still being investigated, but it’s possibly related to ocean warming, multiple nutrient sources, and the fact that largeSargassummats attract other organisms—such as nitrogen-fixing bacteria—that can supply additional nutrients tosustain further growth. Alongside data from MODIS and VIIRS, OCI data from PACE now feeds into theSargassumWatch System’s near-real-time daily and weekly composite maps. Arecent studyof the central-west Atlantic led by Qi, spanning May through August 2024, found that OCI offers several advantages over its predecessors, observing more of the ocean and detectingSargassumwith greater sensitivity. Hu noted that the added pixels from OCI can improve near-real-time monitoring and analyses of short-term fluctuations. And its higher sensitivity, he said, will also lead to improved maps during winter months, “thus helping understandSargassumchanges over time. ”Additionally, the study’s authors found that OCI’s hyperspectral capability makes it the only sensor able to spectrally discriminateSargassumpixels across the Atlantic Ocean “without ambiguity,” adding confidence to the interpretation of detected image features—especially in parts of the Atlantic where another type of floating algae,Trichodesmium, has been reported. “I think I can speak for all project members, past and present, in sharing how rewarding it is to see the promise of PACE’s advancements come to life,” said Jeremy Werdell, PACE project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “OCI has started a true renaissance in aquatic ecosystem monitoring from space. ”NASA Earth Observatory maps and chart by Lauren Dauphin, using PACE and MODIS data courtesy of Lin Qi (NOAA), and Brian Barnes and Chuanmin Hu (University of South Florida, Optical Oceanography Laboratory). 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