The South‐East Madagascar Bloom occurs in an oligotrophic region of the South‐West Indian Ocean. Phase‐locked to austral summer, this sporadic feature exhibits substantial temporal and spatial variability. Several studies, with different hypotheses, have focused on the initiation mechanism triggering the bloom but none has been as yet clearly substantiated. With 19‐years of ocean colour dataset available as well as in‐situ measurements (Argo profiles), the time is ripe to review this feature. The bloom is characterized in a novel manner and a new bloom index is suggested, yielding 11 bloom years, including 3 major bloom years (1999, 2006 and 2008). Spatially, the bloom varies from a mean structure (22° S‐32° S; 50° E‐∼70°E) both zonally and meridionally. A... |