A large winter phytoplankton bloom is seen in the Gulf of Aden on Feb. 12, 2018.

(NASA)

At a Glance

A large phytoplankton bloom was seen by a NASA satellite in February in the Gulf of Aden.The bloom stretched all the way from the coast of Yemen to Somalia.Such blooms are more common later in the year, though this bloom isn't unprecedented.

That isn't Photoshop in the photo above – that's a real phytoplankton bloom in the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and Somalia.

The winter bloom was captured Feb. 12in an image taken by theModerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) , according to NASA's Earth Observatory. Once the image was processed, the bright green blooms could be clearlyseen in swirls that look fake.

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On the ground,Lamont Doherty Earth Observatorybiological oceanographer Joaquim Goes captured a photograph of the bloom off the coast of Muscat, Oman, on Feb. 12.

A phytoplankton bloom is seen in the water off the coast of Muscat, Oman, on Feb. 12, 2018.

(Joaquim Goes/NASA)

Such blooms are more common in mid-summer near Yemen and mid-fall near Somalia, but this winter event isn't unprecedented, the report added. Phytoplankton can provide food for fish and other wildlife in the water, but some blooms can also be deadly for sea creatures, according to NASA.

Many such blooms in the Arabian Sea occur , according to Scientific American. It isn't yet clear what kind of phytoplankton was in this bloom; further testing will be necessary to draw any conclusions, NASA also said.

"NASA hopes to, some day, be able to better identify different types of phytoplankton from orbit through hyperspectral instruments designed specifically for ocean-color remote sensing," Norman Kuring, an ocean scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in the report. "The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission, currently in development, is such an endeavor."