Image of Lake Titicaca captured from the International Space Station

Madrid. An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured a detailed photograph of the southern tip of Lake Titicaca, which is located on the border between Peru and Bolivia, NASA reported.

The image shows the Peruvian side of the lake, which is located in the Andean Altiplano. The lake’s shiny water surface reflects sunlight directly toward the astronaut’s camera, creating an optical phenomenon known as a sun glare.

The brightest area (towards the left of center) is where the reflection of sunlight from the water surface toward the camera is strongest. Areas of land that are usually rusty brown look almost black in this scene due to exposure adjustments on the astronaut’s camera.

The solar flare exposes details that provide a unique view of the processes occurring above and below the lake’s surface.

Subtle features on the water surface are highlighted by the coating of thin films of biogenic oils, which are natural oils commonly found in natural bodies of water.

Biogenic oils decrease water surface roughness and increase spectral reflection, highlighting wind direction and internal waves in the image.

The largest arches are east of the island of Taquile. A smaller one is limited to the strait between the island of Amantani and the Capachica peninsula.

Internal waves are another feature that becomes visible from space with solar flare. These waves develop deep in a body of water and have an amplitude of several meters, but are seen on the surface of the water as waves of very low amplitude. Under the sun’s glare, the surface ones look like bright parallel lines.

Bathymetric maps of Lake Titicaca indicate that the set of internal waves in this image occurred where the deepest water flows against an underwater cliff-like landform, at a depth of 20 to 50 meters near the lake shore.