China haze, temperature inversion, poor air quality

Beijing Shrouded in Brown Haze

Coal-fired Power Plants and Essential Clean Air are Diametrically Opposite to Each Other

Haze blanketed Beijing, China, on January 18, 2010, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image. The entirely image is brown, as if covered by a thin film. The image also hints at a contributing factor to the poor air quality: a temperature inversion, contributing to the buildup of pollutants. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek. Edited by FEWW

(MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, January 18, 2010. The gray-brown haze extends from Beijing to the South China Sea from north to south and from Korea to central China from east to west (shown in the large image). This image shows the densely populated and industrialized North China Plain between Beijing and the Yangtze River, where the haze is so dense that it completely obscures the ground. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek. Edited by FEWW

What Mick Looked Like

Image of the Day:

Tropical Cyclone Mick

Click image to enlarge.

Tropical Cyclone Mick hovered over the Fiji Islands on December 13, 2009, and intensified the following day, pounding the archipelago with strong winds and heavy rains.  The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this true-color image of Mick on December 13, 2009.  The storm had maximum sustained winds of 55 knots (100 kilometers per hour) with gusts of to 70 knots (130 kilometers per hour). Image and caption credit: NASA Earth Observatory. [edited by FEWW]

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SE Australia Toasted Brown

3rd year of drought in Australia

No Relief in Sight for Farmers in Victoria and New South Wales!

Drought in SE Australia

September 7-22, 2005

September 7 – 22, 2009

Centered on the agricultural areas near the Murray River, Australia’s largest river, between Hume Reservoir and Lake Tyrrell, the satellite images show vegetation conditions for a 16-day period in the middle of September in 2005 and 2009 compared to the average mid-September conditions over the decade. Places with vegetation above the decadal average are green, average areas are off-white, areas where vegetation growth was below average are brown.

Here at the border between the state of Victoria (south of the Murray) and New South Wales (north of the river), mid-September is the height of the growing season for cereal grains, including wheat, barley, and oats.

While the overall pattern in each year is unmistakable—2005 was the last year of good growing conditions—there are localized differences in how crops responded to the climate. These differences could have numerous causes, from localized rainfall to variability in the drought-tolerance of an area’s predominant crop type. At the individual field level, a brown or green patch in a single year could indicate a crop that was struggling or flourishing, but it could also reflect a management decision to plant or harvest at a different time or to leave a field fallow.

The images collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. NASA images by Robert Simmon. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey, with assistance from Dath Mita and Curt Reynolds, USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. [Edited by FEWW.]

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