A thick haze over Hindu-Kush Himalaya region

Asian Brown Cloud (ABC) over Hindu-Kush Himalaya region

19 March 2009

Thick blanket of smoke hung over the south of Hindu-Kush Himalaya mainly south of Nepal (covering major cities like Dhangadi, Bhairahawa, Nepalganj, Pokhara, Kathmandu, Biratnagar etc.),  North and eastern region of India (covering Sitapur, Gorakhpur, Patana, Bhagalpur, Kolkota etc.) and most of western part of Bangladesh on 16 March 2009, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite passed over head and captured this image (Image 3).

Image 1: ABC over South Asia (source: Earth Observatory, 18 March 2009) Image 2: ABC over South Asia (source: Earth Observatory, 17 March 2009)Image 3: ABC over South Asia (source: Earth Observatory, 16 March 2009)

The cloud is considered mainly due to the vegetation fires, urban and industrial pollutions, agricultural burning, bush clearing. This cloud is similar to the Asian Brown Cloud (UNEP 2007) but appeared also in this summer which need further validation.

This so called brown clouds have major impact on air quality, human health (lung, heart and eye diseases), regional climate and natural resources. Due to this haze most of domestic flights in Nepal have been cancelled and some international air flights have been delayed in Nepal these days.

The situation seems to be improving over recent days (compare images 2 and 1 with 3 below). But the sky over Kathmandu valley is still covered by the haze which is mainly contributed by the smoke from the forest fires in and near Langtang National Park during last week. The smoke was transported by the southerly wind towards Kathmandu.

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