QuikScat and SeaWiFS data (2000–2007) covering the Mediterranean Sea were used for a multisensor study of the coupling between wind patterns and algal blooms in the Gulf of Lion and the Rhodes-Ierapetra gyre systems. In these near-coastal hotspots, atmospheric forcing creates (albeit with different mechanisms) surface conditions that cause convective processes and consequent nutrient upwelling from deeper layers. As phytoplankton growth in the otherwise oligotrophic Mediterranean basin is always nutrient-limited, the blooming triggered by these processes reflects the prevailing wind patterns. Highly dynamic features recur systematically in the pigment field of both regions, in the same periods (January to May).