Clouds of Pollution Pictured From Space

[zavvy]

<b>Clouds of Pollution Pictured From Space </b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />Haze and dust from industrial activity blanket low-lying regions of eastern China and northern India, two recent satellite images reveal.<br /><br />The images, showing the extent of pollution, were captured by two NASA satellites - Aqua and Terra - using an instrument called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS).<br /><br />Aqua, which captures images in the afternoon, took the picture of Eastern China on 17 November, when a gray haze hung over the coastal plain around the Yellow River and spilled out over the Yellow Sea (centre right of image). <br /><br />The smog is probably churned out by the country's coal-fuelled power plants, smoke from fireplaces in individual homes, and vehicle exhaust and pollution from nearby Beijing and Tianjin. "This type of haze event is common in this part of China," says Jon Ranson, Terra project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, US.<br /><br />Hazy Himalayas <br /><br />Terra, which captures images in the morning, snapped the picture of haze along the foothills of the Himalayan mountains in northern India on 15 November. The haze spreads from the southern Bay of Bengal to the mouth of the Ganges River (centre right of image). But it clears over the Tibetan Plateau to the north of the Himalayas (top of image).<br /><br />"The Himalayas are definitely acting as a barrier to keep the smoke and pollution in that particular region," Ranson told New Scientist. "The smoke and other pollutants back up against the mountains."<br /><br />Terra and Aqua, launched in 1999 and 2002, are "part of NASA's programme to understand the Earth as a system", says Ranson. "We're making measurements of the atmosphere and the ground and their changes and trying to understand the factors causing those changes."<br /><br />In fact, NASA signed an agreement on Thurs