Haze hugged the Himalaya Mountains on November 28, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard NASA’s Terra satellite took this picture the same day. In this image, dingy gray haze clings to the southern side of the mountain range. North of the mountains are opaque white clouds in otherwise clear skies. Atmospheric pressure could be responsible for trapping haze at the base of the mountains and keeping it from moving north.
Like China, India is industrializing rapidly, having tripled its energy consumption in the past 25 years, according to Forbes.com. India currently meets roughly half of its energy needs by burning coal, so it’s possible that the haze just south of the mountain range results from industrial smog. Another possible source of the haze is agricultural burning.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
