Tierra del Fuego

The Tierra del Fuego —- a group of islands at the southern tip of South America —- have some of the worst weather in the world. The rugged islands poke into the ocean current circling Antarctica, and are almost continuously battered by high winds and covered by clouds. On March 28, 2003—an early fall day in the Southern Hemisphere—the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured this rare view of the islands and the Patagonia region of South America. Even in this image, however, Cape Horn, the southernmost point on the continent, remains cloudy.