While orbiting over North America, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this photograph of the city of Mexicali in Baja California, Mexico. The Mexican city’s urban structure meets U.S. agricultural fields along the border between the two countries.
Mexicali and the surrounding agricultural land lie in a low valley known as the Imperial Valley in the U.S. and the Mexicali Valley in Mexico. The area, situated on part of the San Andreas Fault System, is located between the Salton Sea to the north and the wetlands of the Colorado River Delta to the south. The foothills of the Sierra de Los Cucapah, a sub-range of the Peninsular Mountains, are visible at the bottom of the photo.
Sunlight reflects off the water in Laguna México, water treatment facilities, and canals such as the All-American Canal. These canals provide water to irrigate crops on both sides of the border. The fields south and east of Mexicali appear to expand outward from the city, possibly influenced by the shape of the pre-existing wetlands and city infrastructure. Crops grown here are predominantly cotton and wheat.
North of the U.S.–Mexico border, agricultural fields follow a repetitive grid pattern comprising alfalfa, wheat, and sugarcane crops. Some fields are part of a solar farm, identifiable by the small, gray rectangular panels aligned in parallel patterns.
References & Resources
Astronaut photograph ISS071-E-131092 was acquired on May 25, 2024, with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a focal length of 400 millimeters. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 71 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth . Caption by Sara Schmidt, GeoControl Systems, JETS II Contract at NASA-JSC.
