Super El Nino is changing the colour of the OCEAN: NASA satellite images reveal how waters have become bluer as record-breaking temperatures wipe out marine life

Super El Niño is changing the colour of the world's oceans, new NASA satellite images have revealed.

Shocking data collected by the space agency shows how the equatorial Pacific has become 'measurably more blue' over the last few months.

Timelapse images show how a band of lush green along the equator shrinks in the wake of a bright blue wave as ocean temperatures rise.

By contrast, side–by–side comparison with satellite data from 2025 shows how this area held onto its typical green hue throughout the entire year.

NASA says that this dramatic transformation is due to the thousands of species of photosynthesising plankton that live in the ocean.

While plankton can come in colours ranging from brown to teal, areas rich in these tiny creatures typically turn a dazzling emerald green.

However, El Niño interferes with the ocean currents that normally carry cold, nutrient–rich water to the surface.

Without that essential food, the plankton in the equatorial Pacific have starved, and a wash of deep, lifeless blue has returned to the ocean.

El Niño is part of a naturally occurring climate cycle known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation.

Every two to seven years, this pattern brings either a hot El Niño period or a cooler La Niña phase.

During the El Niño phase, hot waters gather in the equatorial Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America, raising the average temperature and affecting global weather patterns.

Scientists now believe we are in the early stages of a massive El Niño cycle, which could have catastrophic effects in the coming months and throughout 2027.

As of October, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts there is an 83 per cent chance that this will be the strongest El Niño since records began in 1950.

Meanwhile, NASA's satellite measurements show that sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific are currently 1.7°C (3°F) above the long–term average, and could jump another fraction of a degree higher in the coming months.

This band of warm water expanded throughout the spring and now covers millions of square miles in an area stretching from the coast of South America to the heart of the Pacific.

This is also the first El Niño year since NASA launched the PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem) satellite in 2024, giving scientists an unprecedented view of the unfolding threat.

The Ocean Colour instrument aboard PACE observes the ocean in 'hyperspectral colour', measuring wavelengths in the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared spectrum.

Dr Matthew Kehrli, a lead research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, says: 'Some people think of water as being just blue, but it's amazing the multitude of colours the ocean can be.'

During El Niño, the trade winds, which typically transport warm water westwards towards Australia, weaken or even reverse.

This reduces the upwelling of nutrient–rich waters from deeper parts of the ocean, leading to a decline in algae numbers and bluer waters, as seen in PACE's observations.

That decline can also trigger cascading effects across the entire marine ecosystem, forcing other animals to relocate to new feeding grounds in search of phytoplankton.

'You have expectations of what you would think would happen, but to visually see the results with the data products that you’re working with in real time is gratifying,' says Dr Kehrli.

Thanks to satellite observations, scientists actually got their first hint that a major El Niño year was coming all the way back in January.

Satellites built to measure sea levels picked up something called a Kelvin Wave building near Micronesia, in the western Pacific Ocean.

Kelvin Waves are slow–moving pulses of water spanning thousands of miles that act like underwater motorways transporting heat from west to east across the Pacific.

That heat warms the air above them, causing it to rise and creating a change in air pressure that weakens the trade winds – kickstarting the El Niño chain reaction.

Dr Josh Willis, project scientist for sea level missions at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, says: 'Kelvin waves are like the heartbeat of El Niño.

'And our sea level satellites let us peer into the ocean and watch every beat.'

By early April, NASA's satellites saw that the Kelvin wave had reached the eastern Pacific and was already starting to warm sea surface temperatures.

Since warm waters also expand and rise, that change can be seen in a massive increase in sea levels within El Niño's critical region.

Sea levels rose by as much as 1.3 feet (40cm) near South America and the coast of California, while sea levels dropped by up to eight inches (20cm) near Indonesia and Australia.

Dr Willis says: 'El Niño touches almost all of us in some way every time it occurs. While many have seen what it can do, we look to the ocean to understand why.'