AKIPRESS.COM - While orbiting over central Mongolia, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured an image of the snow-covered Gobi Altai Mountains and neighboring plains, NASA reports.

Late-afternoon sunlight casts long shadows of mountain peaks onto the plains below. Numerous steep gullies cut into the massif, or mass of mountains, whose rugged appearance contrasts with the flat plains stretching along the top of the image. The plains are a semidesert grassland, or steppe, which provides pasture for livestock herders in the region.

Part of a small dry lake appears in the top left of the image. In wetter years, water from this lake feeds Orog Lake, out of frame to the upper right. This and other nearby lakes are part of the Valley of Lakes waterfowl conservation habitat, protected as a Ramsar site.

In addition to horses, cattle, camels, goats, and sheep, Mongolia is home to the yak–cattle hybrid known as the yakow (khainag in Mongolian). Since 2000, four harsh winters have caused significant loss of livestock, mainly due to unusually deep snow or ice preventing access to grass. Flock sizes had grown rapidly after 1990, increasing the number of animals vulnerable to severe winters.

The grassland surrounding the massif is classified by scientists as a cold semidesert. At an elevation of about 1,250 meters (4,100 feet), annual temperatures are much lower there than in the mountains. The highest peak in the massif, Ikh Bogd (also known as Tergun Bogd), reaches nearly 4,000 meters (13,000 feet). The climate on the peaks is classified as a polar tundra because the average annual temperature is below freezing. Asia's main tundra zone is located in Siberia, along the coast of the Arctic Ocean, 2,800 kilometers (1,750 miles) to the north.