photos from NASA: Mexico, Thibet, Argentina

-->> http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=41251

The Southern Patagonian Icefield of Argentina and Chile is the southern remnant of the Patagonia Ice Sheet that covered the southern Andes Mountains during the last ice age. This detailed astronaut photograph illustrates the terminus of one of the icefield’s many spectacular glaciers—Upsala Glacier, located on the eastern side of the icefield. Upsala is the third largest glacier in the icefield, and like most other glaciers in the region, it has experienced significant retreat over the past century.

-->> http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=41229&src=eoa-iotd

Nicknamed "the Third Pole," Asia's Tibetan Plateau contains the world’s largest persistent ice mass outside of the Arctic and Antarctica. On January 5, 2007, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite captured this image showing part of a glacier-capped mountain chain about 110 kilometers (70 miles) west-northwest of the Tibetan city of Lhasa.

-->> http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=41226&src=eoa-iotd

After making landfall in Central America, Tropical Storm Ida traveled northward across the Gulf of Mexico and toward the southeastern United States. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of the storm on November 9, 2009, at 12:50 p.m. Central Standard Time (18:50 UTC). Ida maintains a roughly circular shape off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Immediately to the east, a wall of clouds stretches southward over the Gulf of Mexico west of Florida. Storm clouds also extend far inland over the Gulf states.