Thick smog hung over the Beijing region on April 10, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Terra satellite took this picture the same day. In this image, smog appears as a hazy cloud of grey that obscures the view of the land surface. Immediately east of the smog are white clouds.
According to news reports, unrest over pollution was on the rise in China in the spring of 2006. The Chinese government took steps to curb the problem, implementing a five-year economic plan aimed at improved energy efficiency, including a tax on luxury cars with large engines.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC.
