Haze over Eastern China

Haze over Eastern China

22September 2006

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More haze filled the skies of eastern China on 20 September 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite took this picture the same day. Unlike the smog in the region on17 September, however, this haze did not hug the coastal plain east of the Taihang Shanrange. Instead, it blended with clouds over the mountains while leaving the coast near the Yellow Sea relativelyclear.

TERRA
20 September 2006

In this image, the haze appears as a pale, dingy gray mass with ill-defined borders, in contrast to the bright white clouds. Weather patterns, including the presence of Typhoon Shanshan in the region, may have caused this haze to accumulate in eastern China. Because China’s Beijing region is one of the world’s most densely populated and is urbanizing rapidly, it produces urban and industrial smog, along with smoke from agricultural fires. Where the skies are clear, cities appear as tan dots surrounded by a green landscape.

(source: EarthObservatory).

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