Tian Shan mountains, Central Asia

The Tian Shan mountains, stretching across the border region of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and western China, are pictured in this image, acquired on 7 September 2011 by Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS). The large, dark lake that splits the mountain range in eastern Kyrgyzstan (lower-left corner) is the second largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea. In the upper-right corner are the Dzungarian Basin and its Gurbantunggut Desert in light brown.