California Residents Can Breathe a Sigh of Relief, as Water Supply Improves
Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio California's water supply has received a significant boost after a record-breaking winter. Two NASA satellites, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), have been tracking the state's water levels, and they have found that the snowpack is at its highest level in over a decade. The GRACE-FO satellites measure changes in Earth's gravity field, which can be used to track changes in water mass. The satellites have found that California's snowpack has increased by 150% since the start of the winter. This is the largest increase in snowpack since GRACE began monitoring California in 2002. The increased snowpack is good news for California, which has been in a drought for the past several years. The state's water supply is used for drinking water, irrigation, and hydroelectric power. The increased snowpack will help to replenish the st...