Satellites: NOAA-15 and NOAA-17, part of NOAA's 850km-high (530 mile-high) Polar Orbiting satellites

The farmlands near the Mississippi River
The rich flood plains around the Mississippi River support a great deal of farmland.
In the false color image below (left) you can see the darkened area where farms have replaced the native forests.
In the "vegetation" view below (right), infrared light shows the distribution of vegetation at the moment. The reason that the plains adjacent to the Mississippi River are seemingly lacking in vegetation is that the farms have been harvested, leaving behind nearly-uncovered land. The surrounding forested land shows up in the darker color of having more vegetative cover.
Note how this situation repeats itself for other large rivers and bodies of water in these images.
Click on the images below for higher-resolution (~100k) versions.