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• Credit

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

These true- and false-color images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite from June 15, 2002, show a broad view of the South American region known as the Pampas. The region is a large, flat, grass-covered expanse between the Andes Mountains to the west and the Atlantic coastal plain. In this image, the Pampas covers the bottom half of the image, and the difference between the two divisions of the Pampas are evident: to the west of the Parana River, which bisects the image from top to bottom, is the Dry Pampas, and to the east is the Humid Pampas. the region is home to Argentina’s ranching industry, and the "gaucho," Spanish for "cowboy," is as much a part of the cultural legacy there as he is in the American West.

In the false-color image, vegetation is bright green, bare soil is pinkish brown, and water is dark blue or black.

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• Database Updated: February 25 2008