This astronaut photograph was taken looking east as the International Space Station was flying about 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) off the Peruvian coast and shows Cordillera Huayhuash (pronounced “Why-wash”).
Though the mountains are located just south of the equator, their elevation is high enough and the air temperatures are cold enough to still support a few small areas of ice.
The icefields of Patagonia, located at the southern end of South America, are the largest masses of ice in the temperate Southern Hemisphere (approximately 55,000 square kilometers).
This detailed astronaut photograph shows Canada’ Heiltskuk Icefield—mostly covered by snow across the upper mountain slopes—and two major valley glaciers that extend from it.