December 14, 2010 - Dust and haze over eastern China

Dust and haze over eastern China

Dust and clouds filled the skies over eastern China in early December 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on December 10, 2010.

The city of Beijing is located at the northern tip of the dust-covered north China Plain, and is surrounded to the north, northwest and west by mountain ranges. In this image, it is located north of the center, where the cloud bank breaks and a semi-circle of green mountain vegetation surrounds the grayish-tan land. To the east lies Bo Hai, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea and one of the busiest seaways in the world. The Yellow Sea, whose blue waters are brushed with peacock green of chlorophyll and filled with brown sediment, can be seen in the lower right corner of the image. Mongolia is the country in the upper left corner.

East of Beijing, the dust is thick enough to almost completely hide the shoreline of Bo Hai, although some of the tan color in that region may come from sediment in the water, as it does in the Yellow Sea. Northeast of the capital city, dust mingles with clouds, lending them a pale camel hue. Southwest of Beijing, parallel dust plumes blow toward the southeast. Farther to the southwest (left edge of image), dust fills mountain valleys, leaving the satellite sensor a clear view of mountain peaks.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 12/10/2010
Resolutions: 1km ( B), 500m ( B), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC