The effects of California's severe multiyear drought can be clearly seen in this pair of images acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. The images show an area northeast of Madera, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains foothills between Yosemite National Park and the San Joaquin Valley. The right image was acquired April 5, 2011, when winter rainfall was at a normal level. H.V. Eastman and Hensley Lakes, and numerous stock tanks, are full, and green vegetation carpets the landscape. Three years later, when the left image was acquired on May 15, 2014, the drying up of the reservoirs is apparent, as is the browning of the grass- and shrub-lands. The images cover an area of 12.1 by 14 miles (19.5 by 22.5 kilometers), and are located at 37.2 degrees north, 119.9 degrees west.
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
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