December 7, 2015
Thick haze blanketed eastern China when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image on December 7, 2015. The haze extended southwest from Beijing for hundreds of kilometers and appeared to be particularly dense in low-lying areas in the Guanzhong Plain near Xi’an. Authorities in Beijing have issued a first-ever “red alert” for air pollution. They have closed schools, placed limits on car usage, and ordered some factories to stop operations, according to news reports.
References & Resources
- The New York Times (2015, December 8) Beijing, With Red Alert for Smog in Full Force, Closes Schools and Limits Traffic. Accessed December 8, 2015.
- Xinhuanet (2015, December 7) Beijing issues first red alert for heavy air pollution. Accessed December 8, 2015.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. Caption and image cropping by Adam Voiland.
