Los Angeles and part of the hinterland in Southern Californi as captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 objective on April 8, 2023. Credit: Contains customized Copernicus Sentinel data (2023 ), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Caught by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on April 8, 2023, this image reveals Los Angeles and part of the hinterland in Southern California.
The sprawling city of Los Angeles, the second most populated in the United States, can be seen in shades of grey in the lower part of the image.
The city of San Bernardino lies around 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles. Numerous water bodies can be recognized in dark blue to the south of San Bernardino, other than for Lake Elsinore which appears light green in the bottom right of the image, more than likely due to a high concentration of algae in the water.
At the northern city limitations, the vegetated areas of the Angeles and San Bernardino National Forests show up at the foothills of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, which stumble upon the center of the image. Mount San Antonio, the greatest peak at 3068 m, in addition to the surrounding peaks are covered with snow.
The Mojave Desert controls the upper part of the image. Center-pivot watering fields stand out as circular green shapes, contrasting with the surrounding landscape. The majority of them are concentrated in the top left of the image, near the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale.
After years of sustained dry spell, California has recently experienced record-breaking winter season rainfall that activated a flower superbloom event in the location.
Blooming fields are so big that they can also be spotted from space. The vibrant orange and yellow colors of poppies and wildflowers in bloom can be seen throughout the image, with the most noticeable in Antelope Valley, west of Lancaster, and in Walker Canyon, north of Lake Elsinore.