NASA has revealed in an announcement that a new $3.6 million project will help in observing and measuring the risk of algal blooms to freshwater around the United States. This would be accomplished by making use of the sky- high images taken by the agency's satellites.

The stint will be performed in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency, US Geological Survey, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The project will see researchers gathering and analyzing satellite imagery stretching as far as 2002.

Moreover, researchers will also collect current pictures of freshwater environments. This will help them track the intensity and frequency of algal blooms.

According to scientists, soft growths of photosynthetic stuff should not be trivialized as they have a huge potential of eventually causing severe damages to freshwater systems.

Algae blooms in water lead to too much oxygen in water, which can cause harm to fish and marine mammals. Also, after algae die, dissolved oxygen in water is used by bacterial populations, causing dangerously low levels of oxygen.

NASA has been gathering ocean and freshwater satellite data since the 1970s in order to keep a close eye on changes in sea ice, water currents, land-use trends, urbanization and numerous things.