Haze along the Himalaya
Haze along the Himalaya
1 December 2006
Haze hugged the Himalaya Mountains on November 28, 2006. TheModerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)flying onboard NASAs Terra satellitetook this picture the same day. In this image, dingy gray haze clings to thesouthern side of the mountain range. North of the mountains are opaque whiteclouds in otherwise clear skies. Atmospheric pressure could be responsible fortrapping haze at the base of the mountains and keeping it from moving north.
Like China, India is industrializing rapidly, having tripled its energyconsumption in the past 25 years, according to Forbes.com. India currently meetsroughly half of its energy needs by burning coal, so its possible that thehaze just south of the mountain range results from industrial smog. Anotherpossible source of the haze is agricultural burning.
The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters perpixel.
(source: EarthObservatory).