This winter’s exceptional rain season is leading to stunning sites sights in California.~ctm
California’s ‘Superbloom’ of Wildflowers Looks Spectacular from Space!
By Elizabeth Howell 3 days ago Science & Astronomy
The Landsat 8 satellite, a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, saw “an explosion” of wildflowers that covered green areas of deserts in Southern California, and DigitalGlobe satellites caught higher-resolution images of the blooms.
The wildflowers blossomed following a wet winter in the region, NASA’s Earth Observatory reported. USGS captured the images with the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat satellite looking down near the town of New Cuyama, which is about 130 miles (210 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. The DigitalGlobe images focused on a location about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Los Angeles.
“The colorful satellite imagery shows the hillsides along Walker Canyon, filled with blooming poppies as well as hundreds of cars parked nearby and people hiking along trails in the area,” DigitalGlobe representatives said in a statement.
Long personal PS from ctm to follow.
The term Super Bloom, or Superbloom, seems to have not had much common usage before 2016 as you can see from this Google Trends graph.
I first heard of a Super Bloom in this Los Angeles Times article.
For many years I had wanted to drive through Death Valley during the early spring to see wildflowers in the desert. I had never heard of a Super Bloom and it seemed like the perfect opportunity. Within five hours I was on a plane bound for Las Vegas, hotels and rental car booked. Here are some pictures from that trip.
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