Above and Beyond: Death Valley

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with the NASA Earth Observatory.

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA

 

except:

·       Image of Antarctic snow dunes courtesy of Mark Fahnestock, University of Maryland, College Park

·       Sea creature illustration copyright The National Library of Israel, Shapell Family Digitization Project _and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Geography – Historic Cities Research Project

·       Image of clouds off Namibian coast courtesy of Chelys

·       Image of dunes in the Namib Desert courtesy of the USGS EROS Data Center Satellite Systems Branch

·       Namibian dune photo courtesy of Wikimedia user Alcazarfr

·       Photo of the Mandara Oasis in Libya courtesy of Rudolph Baumann

·       Photo of Astrophytum ornatum cactus courtesy of Wikimedia user Stan Shebs

·       Photos of desert plants courtesy of Wikimedia user Halfalah and Dr. Eric Christian (NASA)

·       Photo of fishhook barrel cactus courtesy of Susan Lynn Peterson

·       Photo of Ubari Oasis in Libya courtesy of Wikimedia user Sfivat

·       Image of alluvial fan in Takla Makan Desert courtesy of the USGS EROS Data Center Satellite Systems Branch

·       Photos of salt-covered croplands courtesy of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

 

Music courtesy of Associated Production Music

Written by Andrea Gianopoulos

Designed by Marc Lussier

(SPEECH)

[MELLOW MUSIC]

 

(DESCRIPTION)

A satellite view of Death Valley, California, USA, shows a colorful arid landscape with hues of green, purple, red, blue, brown, and tan. There is a bright blue section in the center.

 

Text, Death Valley is one of the hottest, driest places on Earth. Summer temperatures rise to well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit but fall dramatically at night.

 

Death Valley is 282 feet below sea level and only receives about 2 inches of rain each year, yet more than a thousand different species call Death Valley home.

 

This false-color image was made using visible and infrared data captured by the Landsat 7 satellite.

 

Green indicates vegetation, which increases with altitude and highlights the juniper and pine forests on the mountain peaks.

 

Dots of brilliant green are likely from irrigation. There are squares of brilliant green gridded out in dry washes.

 

Text, Varying shades of brown, beige, and rust indicate the different mineral content in bare rock and soil.

 

Bright blue-green patches are salt deposits that still hold a little moisture.

 

Fades to black.