December 22, 2003JPEG
Dense haze was drifting eastward from China across the Yellow Sea, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan on December 22, 2003. Winter is a time of increased coal usage for heating in east Asia, and this may account for some of the haze.
This SeaWiFS image was collected starting at 4:23 UTC— just under 3 hours before winter solstice, which occurred at 7:04 UTC.
Image courtesy SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE
The air over most of eastern China was filled with thick, gray pall of pollution on Jan. 29, 2004.



On February 6, 2007, thick haze blew across the Yellow Sea and the Korean Peninsula toward Japan. In this image, the band of haze appears to narrow somewhat as it crosses over South Korea, then spreads out over the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
A thick plume of haze blew off the coast of China, across the Yellow Sea, and toward the Korean Peninsula in early December 2008.
