Dust hovered over eastern China on December 25, 2009, as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite passed overhead. This true-color image shows tan-colored dust stretching from north and west of Beijing toward the southeast, over Bo Hai and the Yellow Sea. Thick dust also appears over the city of Dalian, east of Bo Hai. Source points for the plumes aren’t obvious in this image. Some of the dust may have arisen near Beijing, but most of these dust plumes likely arose farther west. Immediately west of the capital city, ridges rise above the dust, which may be mixed with haze.
The same day that MODIS captured this image, Agence France-Presse reported that South Korea had issued a warning to its citizens to avoid outdoor activities because of “yellow dust” from Mongolia.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
