Near the western tip of the Mojave Desert and a few miles west of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, fields of poppies colored the landscape a bright orange this spring. On April 14, 2020, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite acquired these images of vast blooms in the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. These images were acquired when poppy flowers in the valley were thought to be at or near their peak.
The flowers bloomed after Southern California received significant rainfall in March and April 2020. This spring, Lancaster received around 10.5 inches (27 centimeters) of rain—almost 4 inches (10 centimeters) above normal. The extra rain may cause the poppies to stick around longer than usual and result in an above-average wildflower year. Park officials called this bloom an “unexpected” surprise due to the late season rains.
While many parks have restricted visitor access to the park during the COVID-19 quarantine, people can view the flowers through online livestreams. Depending on the day or even hour, the orange patches may change in appearance. The poppies open their petals during sunny periods, appearing like a large blanket over the landscape. The flowers tend to close during windy, cold periods. While the orange poppies are easy to spot in satellite imagery, the fields also contain cream cups, forget-me-nots, purple bush lupines, and yellow goldfields (a relative of the sunflower).
References & Resources
- California Department of Parks and Recreation (2020) Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve Live Stream. Accessed April 28, 2020.
- CBS Los Angeles (2020, April 9) Late-Season Storms Slowly Pulling Southern California Out Of Drought Conditions. Accessed April 28, 2020.
- LA Curbed (2020, April 14) You can live-stream poppy fields at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. Accessed April 28, 2020.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2019, April 10) A Super View of a Super Bloom.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2019, March 18) Wildflower Super Bloom Returns to California.
- Travel + Leisure (2020, April 27) Californiaâs Iconic Poppy Fields Are in Bloomâand You Can See Them Safely at Home (Video). Accessed April 28, 2020.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Kasha Patel.
