File:Clouds of Color in the Persian Gulf (MODIS 2022-02-09).jpg

English: The blue waters of the Persian Gulf were colored with swirls of green, teal, and tan in early February 2022. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of the scene on February 8.

Clouds of green swirling near the shore appears to be sediment that has been washed into the water from the land. Sediment can be carried by rain, washed from the shoreline or churned up from the bottom by tides or waves, or blown in by wind. Given the arid climate with nearly sand seas and deserts, at least some of the sediment is likely to have come from dust storms, but the location is suggestive of water action on relatively shallow bottoms.

Some of the bright colors also may come from blooms of plant-like organisms, such as phytoplankton or algae. Both types of organisms live year-round in these waters and can reproduce explosively when conditions are just right.

The Persian Gulf is flanked by the Arabian Peninsula with its vast tan, pink and white sand deserts in the south and west, and the dry mountains of Iran in the north.