Smog over the Bay of Bengal

  • Credit

    NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.

Haze has built up along the Himalaya Mountains and spread out across the Bay of Bengal in the first of February 2006.

Against the arcing backdrop of the Himalaya Mountains (top of image), rivers of grayish haze follow the courses of the Ganges River and its tributaries (left) and the Brahmaputra River (right) on February 1, 2006. The plumes appear to combine like their watery counterparts and flow out together over the Bay of Bengal past the Mouths of the Ganges, the multi-pronged delta of the river along the Bangladesh coast. This image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

Scientists studying the cloud of haze that frequently lingers over parts of Asia from Pakistan to China and even the Indian and Pacific Oceans have called the pollution the “Asian Brown Cloud.” The mix of aerosols (tiny particles suspended in the air) includes smoke from agricultural and home heating and cooking fires, vehicle exhaust, and industrial emissions. In addition to the respiratory problems the persistent haze can cause, it also appears to hinder crops by blocking sunlight and could be altering regional weather.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Terra/MODIS

  • Start Date

    2006-02-01

  • Event Start Date

    2006-02-01

  • NH Image ID

    13341

  • NH Event ID

    10868

  • NH Posting Date

    2006-02-01