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NASA’s Earth Observatory: Drought in California’s Central Valley

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 18, 2009 at 8:25 am

From NASA’s Earth Observatory:

“By the end of July 2009, California was well into its third dry year in a row. On average, the state’s reservoirs were running low. In particular, the San Luis reservoir had reached only 18 percent of its capacity by July 28, said the Drought Operations Center for the State of California. The San Luis Reservoir stores water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Delta to be distributed through the southern Central Valley. As water levels at the reservoir and elsewhere dropped, many water districts faced restrictions. The impact of those water restrictions on farms in the Westlands and Tulare Lake Districts is illustrated in this vegetation anomaly image.

The image was made from data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite between July 12 and July 27, 2009. The sensor records the amount of light that photosynthesizing plants absorb and reflect as they grow. The image shows how vegetation fared in 2009 compared to the average conditions from 2000 and 2008. In places where plants were growing more than average, the land is green. Cream shows areas of average growth, and brown points to less plant growth than average. In this image, dark squares of brown are scattered across much of the Westlands and Tulare Lake water districts. These brown squares are fields that would ordinarily support irrigated crops, but in 2009 the crops were not growing well or the fields lay fallow. …”

More from NASA’s Earth Observatory by clicking here.

August 18, 2009 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack

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One Response to “NASA’s Earth Observatory: Drought in California’s Central Valley”

  1. Central Valley, observed | Chance of Rain on August 18th, 2009 12:13 pm

    [...] to Aquafornia, the news feed for the Water Education Foundation, for catching this NASA image from the Earth [...]

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