File:Southwestern Africa (MODIS 2017-11-20).jpg

English: On November 17, 2017, NASA’s Terra satellite passed over western Africa, allowing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard to acquire a beautiful true-color image of the region.

Black lines have been overlain on the original image to mark political boundaries. The countries which can be viewed are, from north to south along the coast are Angola, Namibia, and South Africa. Inland portions of the following countries can be seen: Zambia (in the north), Zimbabwe, Botswana, and, in the southeast and surrounded by South Africa, lies the Lesotho.

One of the major features of the region are the large gray area in northern Namibia. This is the Etosha Pan, a large, dry lake measuring about 130 km (80.8 mi) long. The pan is a unique feature of the arid region, providing waterholes in and around the pan that support large amounts of wild animal and bird life. Etosha National Park was developed to protect this ecosystem and is one of the more easily accessible parks in the region.

The orange-colored sands along the southern coast of southwest Africa mark the Namib Desert. This desert is considered to be one of the oldest in the world, and is caused by a cool ocean current, called the Bengal Current, snaking its way up from the south along southern Africa's Atlantic Coast. The cold current suppresses rainfall, but contributes to a morning fog that becomes trapped on the surface of some dunes and provides enough moisture for sparse vegetation to grow in some places. Some of the highest sand dunes in the world are found in the Namib Desert, rising as high as 1,167 feet.