Earth from Space - Image Description

STS062-098-158 San Joaquin Valley, Lake McClure, and Don Pedro Reservoir, California, U.S.A. March 1994
The agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley is captured in this low-oblique, north-northeast-looking photograph. The boundary is distinct between agricultural field patterns of the valley and the grass- and scrub-covered alluvial fan, which becomes more tree covered as the altitude of the Sierra Nevada Mountains increases. Two large reservoirs--broader and more northerly Don Pedro Reservoir, fed and drained by the Tuolumne River, and narrower and more southerly Lake McClure, fed and drained by the Merced River--modify the valley's water flow for drinking water and crop irrigation. The higher Sierra Nevada Mountains are visible to the east.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.