The Atacama desert is located primarily in Chile along the Pacific ocean. Because of its high altitude, nearly absent cloud cover, dry air and lack of light pollution and radio obstruction from the very widely spaced cities, the desert offers one of the best spots to conduct astronomical observations. Indeed, the European Southern Observatory operates two major observatories in the Atacama.
The Patagonian Desert is the largest desert in Argentina and is the seventh largest desert in the world by area.
It is fairly windy and is one of the largest sources of dust over the South Atlantic ocean. It is a large, cold winter desert where temperature hardly ever exceeds 12° C and averages just 3° C
