The state of Almería in southeastern Spain has some of the driest precondition in Europe . Yet , with access to groundwater and an abundance of Lord’s Day , it has become a major hub of nursery agriculture .
On May 24 , 2022 , the Operational Land Imager-2 ( OLI ) on Landsat 9 captured these natural - color paradigm of a sea of moldable greenhouses around the town of El Ejido . The township sits on a small coastal knit called Campo de Dalías , which has one of the highest concentrations of greenhouses in the world .
The nursery ( invernaderos in Spanish ) are a comparatively new phenomenon . In the fifties , Campo de Dalías was mostly covered by scrubby vegetation , pasture , and a few small-scale plot of ground of seasonal crops grown outdoors . Farmers started experimenting with adding layers of sand and mulch to the soil along with a screening of credit card in the 1950s and 1960s , initially to protect the soil and plants from detrimental wind and salty groundwater . They soon realize that crops grown under plastic were far more rich than their outdoor opposite number because soils stayed warmer and retained extra moisture .
The use of greenhouses spread out chop-chop in the stick to decades as new foundation , such as drip irrigation , the use of artificial soil , and hydroponics pushed crop yield up . By some approximation , Almería ’s glasshouse now bring about between 2.5 million and 3.5 million gross ton of fruits and veggie per year , enough to make them a major source of off - time of year tomato plant , peppers , cucumber , and melons for people all over Europe .
By some estimates , Almería ’s greenhouse now cover more than 40,000 hectares ( 150 square miles)—nearly all of Campo de Dalías . They have also shed into neighboring field . The nursery cover so much expanse that they have likely even caused a localized cooling system effect because the white roofs reflect a solid amount of sun .
Using observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ) sensors on NASA ’s Aqua and Terra satellite , University of Almería investigator calculated that Almería ’s open albedo increase by almost 10 percent between 1983 and 2006 because of the in high spirits reflectivity of the greenhouse . They concluded this in all probability bestow to a chill event of 0.3 ° C ( 0.5 ° F ) per ten in Almería compared to a 0.5 ° C increase per decade in the region .
For more information : NASAwww.nasa.gov
