Recent reports from the aerosol science community suggest that the haze (gray pixels) visible in this true-color scene across the top of the North Sea and Scandinavia is probably smoke that has blown eastward around the globe from the intense fires burning in northeast Asia. This scene was acquired on May 27, 2003, by the SeaWiFS sensor, flying aboard the Orbview-2 satellite.
Also note the bright aquamarine patches of water in the Atlantic Ocean northeast and southwest of the United Kingdom. These patterns on the ocean surface suggest blooms of highly reflective phytoplankton such as coccolithophores. (Read What is a Coccolithophore? for more details.)
Image provided by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) Project, NASA-GSFC, and ORBIMAGE
