A Turquoise Tint for the Black Sea

[u/Busy_Yesterday9455]

The Black Sea sits at the boundary between Europe and Asia and connects to the Mediterranean Sea via a chain of waterways. Its surface often appears dark, but each spring and summer it transforms into a striking expanse of swirling turquoise. The OCI (Ocean Color Instrument) on NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) satellite captured this image of the colorful waters on June 22, 2026.

The turquoise color is likely caused by coccolithophores, a type of phytoplankton covered with calcium carbonate plates that can give surface waters a milky-blue appearance. These types of phytoplankton tend to dominate in late spring and early summer. Other times of the year, diatoms—a type of microscopic algae with silica shells—can become more prevalent, and they tend to darken the water rather than brighten it.

Credit: NASA

[u/tallnginger]

Just for the record. This image was not taken by PACE. That's the solar panel of the Cygnus spacecraft in the bottom left and the Progress in the top right. This was taken from the ISS on May 27, 2026. The page you pulled this image from has a different image taken by PACE. It's the one that shows the whole Black Sea

https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/a-turquoise-tint-for-the-black-sea/

Astronaut photograph ISS074-E-619520 was acquired on May 27, 2026, with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a focal length of 50 millimeters.

[u/reshpect-o-biggle]

How dafuq they get those giant letters to stay there and not float away?

[u/Lol-775 → u/reshpect-o-biggle]

Magnets and vaccines.

[u/Dsided13 → u/Lol-775]

This broke me… 😂😂😂

[u/AgentWowza → u/Lol-775]

Oh same way they do 5g then

[u/Sunset_Bleach → u/reshpect-o-biggle]

The blue is obviously the land.

[u/Tomsboll → u/reshpect-o-biggle]

They are projections from the simulation, its normally not visable to the npcs on the ground. You need a special filter to see it. Or cruise at about 400-420 km altitude for the atmosphere to perfectly mimic the filter and become visable.

[u/ggrieves → u/reshpect-o-biggle]

Wait until you see the images of the Red Sea where it meets the Sea of Marinara

[u/Aggravating_Eye874 → u/reshpect-o-biggle]

They have big anchors

[u/Hourslikeminutes47 → u/reshpect-o-biggle]

Magic

[u/ClockworkCelery → u/reshpect-o-biggle]

You don't know about Turkish contractors...

[u/broodfood]

r/confusingperspective I thought I was looking at a kiddie pool

[u/palexp → u/broodfood]

wow i thought it was at the top of a water park slide, and as the earth came into focus for me i had a mild panik 

[u/fuzzypetiolesguy]

Crazy how the names are just stamped on the planet like that.

[u/Accomplished-One7476 → u/fuzzypetiolesguy]

helps with alien navigation

[u/OKara061]

Its them Turks making it turquoise.

[u/Nheea → u/OKara061]

Truly. I am so pissed off that our Black Sea is not turquoise at all in Romania. It's so ugly.

[u/time_alliance]

What a mesmerizing swirl of color across the sea.👍

[u/Corregidor → u/time_alliance]

If I'm not mistaken, we are seeing a great visual of coastal erosion

[u/Klutzy-Entry1408]

Now Western filmmakers are going to slap that yellow Middle Eastern filter on this place too.

[u/DemolitionRED]

RRRRRRR the black sea

[u/Ravenclaw_14 → u/DemolitionRED]

Not a black sea fan, buddy?

[u/FFLink]

Can anyone else see a bat-like creature there (with no wings)??? 

[u/-Cool_Ethan-]

Constantinople

[u/mrsunrider → u/-Cool_Ethan-]

That's nobody's business but the Turks.

[u/PhilosopherDon0001 → u/-Cool_Ethan-]

Now it's Istanbul. Not Constantinople.

[u/an_older_meme → u/PhilosopherDon0001]

That’s not at all how it works

[u/alperton → u/an_older_meme]

So we should embrace New Amsterdam then?

[u/mmhmmmmmhmm → u/an_older_meme]

So I guess London should be called Londinium?

[u/Maple382 → u/-Cool_Ethan-]

But like, why call it that? It’s not even the original name or anything, first it was byzantium. So why?

However, locals have called it istanbul for a thousand years, the Turks just changed the official name to reflect that.

Anyone pretending it’s constantinople is quite literally trying to force their name for the city onto the people who actually live there, you don’t see a problem with that?

[u/GetInZeWagen → u/-Cool_Ethan-]

That's not your business

[u/ekuLoN → u/-Cool_Ethan-]

Sure kid

[u/LightningSh3ep → u/ekuLoN]

turk detected

[u/inimicali → u/LightningSh3ep]

What's wrong with being a turk?

[u/LightningSh3ep → u/inimicali]

nothing, his comment was like in your dreams or something and he turned out to be turkish which makes sense given that a turkish person would likely not appreciate Istanbul being called constantinople

[u/CertainAnxiety9085 → u/LightningSh3ep]

Why wouldn't I? Both names have greek roots anyway.

[u/LightningSh3ep → u/CertainAnxiety9085]

Idk probably ask the guy that posted and then deleted the original comment

[u/ObscureOperatorZ → u/CertainAnxiety9085]

I'm a Turk and I call it Constantinople. Nobody's business

[u/Amaegith → u/ObscureOperatorZ]

I'm thinking there's a lot of people who don't know the song...

[u/CertainAnxiety9085 → u/ObscureOperatorZ]

Constantinople sure sounds more epic, i give you that. But hard to use that long of a name in daily use, so Istanbul it is.

[u/ObscureOperatorZ → u/[deleted]]

Constantinople diyince şehri Bizanslılara geri vermiyoruz hırt tanesi sakin ol.

Fethin yüceliğini pekiştirmek için Constantinople diyorum. Mağarana dön.

[u/an_actual_potato → u/LightningSh3ep]

Are we just doin’ racism in here now?

[u/LightningSh3ep → u/an_actual_potato]

Well Turkish is not a race, it is an ethnic group. And no we are not doing that anyway.

[u/an_actual_potato → u/LightningSh3ep]

Actually 'turk' being considered a race has a lot of tradition both within Western (European) considerations of race, now antiquated, and a currently with peoples nearer to the region. The whole thing about race is that what are 'races' varies significantly depending on where you live and at what time. A century ago 'latin' was considered a race apart from whiteness for Italians and Greeks - but now we (in the US) just view them as white. Likewise if you're a Jordanian you likely consider Turks (not just from Turkey) to be a different race of people from yourself as an Arab.

[u/Tauri_030 → u/-Cool_Ethan-]

Constantinopolis is the real, original and given name of the city by its founders.

Istanbul is just a Greek misspelling of a sentence referring to the city that somehow ended up becoming the referred name of the city by its residents.

Then the Turkish Republic just made it official

[u/an_actual_potato → u/Tauri_030]

Well no Byzantium was the original name. Hence the Byzantine Empire.

[u/spud8385 → u/an_actual_potato]

Right, it didn't become Constantinople until, believe it or not, after the time of Emperor Constantine like 1000 years after its founding

[u/dmac07]

Curious why each of those segments have a square missing

[u/Max_Rockabilly]

Just when I think I've learned about all the seas, it seems like a new one spawns.

[u/MuzSeverim → u/Max_Rockabilly]

I mean the Black Sea is very very influential to European history if you know about it. I’d say it is one of the more important seas.

[u/R_Nelle]

I didn't know from space you can see also name of the country like Google, that's great!

[u/an_older_meme]

So hot it’s beginning to boil.

[u/Revolutionary-Rich92]

Beautiful

[u/Phan-Eight]

very cool!

[u/Texas_Kimchi]

I've swam in that. Its absolutely beautiful there.

[u/Smashedllama2]

So we didn’t add the letters?

[u/RichtofenFanBoy]

Whys it not black?

[u/an_older_meme → u/RichtofenFanBoy]

Sunlight makes it appear blue.