More haze collected over eastern China’s coastal basin November 2, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture the same day. The smog extended from the Liaoning region in the northeast to Beijing in the west, and it thickened near the coast bordering the Yellow Sea. Like the haze that covered the region on September 17, this smog kept to the coastal plain, away from the Taihang Shan Mountains in the west.
China’s Beijing region is one of the world’s most densely populated areas, and it produces substantial urban and industrial smog. Some of the haze in this image may also result from agricultural fires. Weather patterns (high-pressure systems) can sometimes play a role in trapping pollutants over the region.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. The Rapid Response Team provides daily images of this region.
