November 26, 2021 - Haze over Northern China and the Korean Peninsula

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Aerosols over China/Korean Peninsula
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A massive layer of thick haze blanketed the North China Plain, the
Yellow Sea, and the Korean Peninsula in mid-November 2021. The Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua
satellite acquired this true-color image on November 18. The gray haze
began well inland, stretching for more than 1,100 miles (1,786 km) from
west to east and more than 700 miles (1,127 km) from north to south.
For much of this area, the ground underneath the haze was completely
obscured from view from space, including Beijing, China and Seoul,
South Korea.

Haze frequently occurs in this region, typically lasting somewhere
between a day and a few weeks. While it can occur at any time of the
year, it tends to worsen in the fall and winter when cold, heavy air
traps pollutants near the land surface. This most often happens when a
mass of warm air moves over cooler air (a temperature inversion),
creating a barrier that the cooler air can’t rise through, so that the
cooler air stays low and any pollutants in that cooler can’t disperse
but accumulate over time.

Even without the added difficulty of a temperature inversion, the
structure of the land is favorable for the accumulation of pollutants.
The North China Plain is surrounded by mountains in the north and west,
the Bohai Gulf (part of the Yellow Sea) to the east, while in the south
the land is open and flat—and filled with industry and heavy
population. Winds can easily carry pollutants northward until the flow
is interrupted by the mountains and stagnation occurs.

Haze in this region comes from a complex mix of sources. These include
industrial pollution, biomass burning, use of coal for heat, cooking
fuels, and even dust from inland deserts and dry areas. The satellite
record shows that, about a week before this extreme haze settled across
the region, that dust was flowing eastward across China and mixing with
a gray haze that had already begun to accumulate.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 11/18/2021
Resolutions: 1km (1.1 MB), 500m (3.2 MB), 250m (2.2 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC-



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-11-26

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