Haze over Eastern China

Haze over Eastern China

Haze hugged mountain slopes and filled valleys in eastern China in late October 2011. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this image on October 30.

An arc of haze extends hundreds of kilometers southwest of the capital city of Beijing, which lies just off the northeastern edge of the image. Especially thick haze hovers over the city of Xi’an. High ridges poke above the haze, which appears confined to lower elevations. The haze likely results from urban and industrial pollution.

NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.