Northwest Peru

  • Credit

    Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

In northwestern Peru, the Sechura Desert illustrates the hyper-arid conditions created along the west coast of Peru and northern Chile by the cold ocean currents welling up along the coast. These cold waters provide little in the way of evaporation that would ultimately end up as rain, and deserts like the Sechura (southwest of center) are the result. Intermingled with the dry barren landscape are rivers and streams that run out of the High peaks of the Andes, bringing pockets of water and vegetation to small areas. At the top of the image is Ecuador. This MODIS image was acquired on May 30, 2002.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Terra/MODIS

  • Visualization Date

    2002-06-02