Haze
collects over Beijing (brownish-gray area at top center) less than a month before China’s capital hosts the
Olympics, as seen by NASA’s Terra satellite.
The
problems of dust and manmade
pollution have bedeviled Beijing residents for years, but Chinese officials
have taken steps to create a cleaner city ahead of the Olympics that will take
place August 8-24, 2008. Such steps include banning cars on alternate days organized by license plates
ending in odd or even numbers, halting construction and shutting down factories. However, the haze seen in
this image taken on July 21 may have come partly from smoking Russian
wildfires.
China
has higher aims still than just reducing its emissions by more than 60 percent
during the Olympics — it also wants to try and ensure a rain-free
opening ceremony by seeding the clouds with chemical concentrates to cause
advance precipitation.
— NASA/Michon Scott and SPACE.com Staff
Credit:
NASA/MODIS/Goddard
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