Sulaiman Mountain Haze

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of the Sulaiman Mountains in central Pakistan on December 17, 2023. This range forms a natural wall between the plateaus to the west and the Indus River Valley to the east. Winds blowing in from the Indian Ocean and the Indus floodplain carry moisture and dust inland, and when that air hits the mountains it piles up into the mix of haze, mist, and clouds you see stretching across the top of the frame.

Rather than shooting straight down, the astronaut aimed the camera at an angle. That sideways view is the key to this image. It stretches out the shadows cast by the ridges and ravines, turning the reddish brown terrain into a landscape full of folds and creases that a top-down photo would flatten out. The result shows just how rugged this country really is, with dry riverbeds branching across the lower half like veins. Photographs like this help scientists study geology and weather, but the oblique angle also does something a satellite rarely manages, which is to give the land a real sense of depth and shape.