Smoke in the Andean vales
Snapped from the International Space Station we have an image taken from the east over the 4000 metre Altiplano of Bolivia, with Lake Titicaca's (see http://bit.ly/2sMekny) southern tip poking into the image at the bottom left with the barren plateau in the foreground (a consequence of the rain shadow. This phenomenon is caused by the dominant trade winds blowing across the continent from the Atlantic coast, bringing the moisture that feeds the Amazon and other rivers. The air hits the Andes, rises and cools, precipitates into moisture and rains, and then, thoroughly dry hops over the mountains to desiccate the coastal strip of Chile and Peru beyond. The phenomenon is known as a rain shadow (see http://bit.ly/1I1OPAh). In the lowlands below the mountains there are dark green jungles part covered in cloud, feeding off the stream of nutrient laden water washing off the peaks. Here several forest fires are burning at the top edge of the photo, and their smoke is being drawn up the valleys, in one case passing through the 6000 m Cordillera Oriental (the chain of snow capped peaks in the centre of the image) up a river valley that has eroded headwards into the chain.
. Loz
Image credit: NASA
https://go.nasa.gov/2GvnrLd
