An unseen ecological battle is being waged in Florida. Yet, its effects are so massive that it can be glimpsed from the stars. Lake Okeechobee, Florida’s largest freshwater reserve and the United States’ 10th biggest natural freshwater lake, has been enveloped in a toxic blanket of blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, impacting more than 60% of its area by mid-July 2023. Initially spotted on June 12, 2023, from NASA’s Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) aboard Landsat 9, the coverage was already over half the lake’s surface area. The bloom size burgeoned, measuring 420 square miles by July 4th and 440 square miles … Continue reading Toxic Algal Bloom Envelops Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, Visible Even from Space