Thick haze lingered along the southern face of the Himalaya in late December 2008. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on December 29, 2008. In this image, the haze is thickest immediately south of Nepal and thins out slightly to the east. Isolated reds dots in this image indicate hotspots—thermal anomalies associated with wildfires or agricultural fires. Although these fires may contribute to the haze, they cannot account for all or even most of it. The haze probably results primarily from urban and industrial pollution.
NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
