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Browse All : Images of Beijing and Mongolia and Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

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Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan
Title Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan
Description A few days earlier than usual, a large, dense plume of dust blew southward and eastward from the desert plains of Mongolia?quite smothering to the residents of Beijing. Citizens of northeastern China call this annual event the ?shachenbao,? or ?dust cloud tempest.? However, the tempest normally occurs during the spring time. The dust storm hit Beijing on Friday night, March 15, and began coating everything with a fine, pale brown layer of grit. The region is quite dry, a problem some believe has been exacerbated by decades of deforestation. According to Chinese government estimates, roughly 1 million tons of desert dust and sand blow into Beijing each year. This true-color image was made using data from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), flying aboard the OrbView-2 satellite, on March 18, 2002. The massive dust storm (brownish pixels) can easily be distinguished from clouds (bright white pixels) as it blows across Japan and out over the Pacific Ocean. Image courtesy the SeaWiFS Project, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/redirect?http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html ] NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE
Dust Storm over Eastern Chin …
Title Dust Storm over Eastern China
Description According to Chinese news reports, a dust storm had been predicted for northern and central China between March 9 and March 12, 2006, and the prediction proved correct. On March 10, a dust storm struck the region of Beijing. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] flying onboard the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image on March 10, 2006. In this mage, dust mingles with clouds over northeastern China and the Korean Peninsula. The dust cloud appears as a pale tan, slightly lighter than the underlying landscape. Dust clouds obscure the view of the city of Beijing. According to Reuters News Service, the dust resulted in a rare phenomenon in South Korea: yellow snow. Snow laced with dust can pose a health hazard, and the Korean weather bureau issued a dust warning. In northeastern China and Mongolia, the storm posed the usual hazards to respiratory tracts and eyes. The Gobi Desert was the likely source of at least some of this dust. Dust storms are far from rare in the Gobi Desert in March. Dust storms in March and April can actually exceed the number of storms for all other months combined. This storm resulted from cold air from Siberia combined with low pressure from Mongolia. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
Dust Storm over the Yellow S …
Title Dust Storm over the Yellow Sea
Description On November 6, 2005, a massive dust storm swept southward over the Yellow Sea from northern China. This storm followed on the heels of perhaps the worst air pollution [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13250 ] in nearby Beijing in six months, according to news reports. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] flying onboard the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image on November 6. In this image, pale beige dust plumes streak southward over the Bo Hai, Korea Bay, and Yellow Sea, likely mixing with air pollutants from other parts of the country as the dust passes over the ocean. According to a news report [ http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1605041,00.html ] in The Guardian, China was named the "air pollution capital of the world" in the fall of 2005. This dust storm, however, owes its existence to more than pollution. The sandy deserts of Mongolia lie to the north, and Mongolia is one of the world's most prolific sources of dust. Yet this region produces some treasures along with natural hazards. Sandwiched between Mongolia to the north, and Bo Hai to the south, is Liaoning, a part of China that has become famous in recent years for its fossils, such as feathered dinosaurs [ http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/dinosaurs/diorama/forest.php ]. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Smog and Sand over Beijing
Title Smog and Sand over Beijing
Description Thick sand from one of China's famed sandstorms clouded the air over Beijing on April 17, 2006. The storm swept east from the border region between China and Mongolia and blanketed cities across China with gritty yellow sand. The storm was the eighth and worst such storm of 2006, reported the BBC. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] flying onboard the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite took this picture on the morning of April 17. In this image, a thick band of tan dust obscures the view of the land surface below. Immediately east of the sandstorm are thick clouds, colored tan by the airborne dust. Along the coastlines, brownish sediments from both China and the Korean Peninsula cloud the Yellow Sea. As Terra captured this image, The Korea Times predicted that the storm would strike Korea on the evening of April 17, 2006. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC. [ http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]
Spring Dust Storms Scour Chi …
Title Spring Dust Storms Scour China
Description A river of dust stretched hundreds of kilometers over China on April 28, 2005. The dust storm originated in the Gobi Desert near the border with Mongolia. Blown by powerful winds from Mongolia, the dust crossed the Luliang Mountains, the peaks of which divide the tan cloud that filled the lower valleys, and blanketed the North China Plain, a highly populated region where several large cities, including Beijing, are located. This image of the storm was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA?s Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on the morning of April 28. Such dust storms occur frequently in the spring when winds blow out of the north. The large image provided above has a resolution of 500 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions, including MODIS? maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
Spring Dust Storms Scour Chi …
Title Spring Dust Storms Scour China
Description Just as flowering and greening plants, migrating birds, and flooding herald the coming of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, dust storms are a sign of spring in northern China. Cold fronts from Siberia to the north bring strong winds to the deserts of Inner Mongolia. The winds pick up sand and carry it southeast over the densely populated region surrounding the Bo Hai and the Yellow Sea. In the most powerful storms, the dust may be carried all the way across the Pacific Ocean to North America. The storms subside in mid-May when warm air moves up from the southwest. On April 20, 2005, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this photo-like image of dust over the Yellow Sea. The storm that generated this dense brown cloud of dust covered much of Northern China, including Beijing, with a dusty haze. The dust blew east into Korea, where officials referred to it as the worst dust storm so far this year. The winds are expected to calm on Friday, April 22, 2005. Not all of the brown seen in this image is caused by airborne dust. Near the shores, sediment colors the water of the Yellow Sea. The brown of the sediment fades to green as the dirt is diluted in the sea. The high-resolution image provided above is at MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides the image in additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC.
Dust over Mongolia and China …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Near the end of May 2008, a …
china_tmo_2008149
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2008-05-28
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier china_tmo_2008149
Dust over Mongolia and China …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
A springtime dust storm spre …
china_amo_2008148
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2008-05-27
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier china_amo_2008148
Dust Storm over the Yellow S …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
On November 6, 2005, a massi …
ysdust_amo_2005310
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2005-11-06
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier ysdust_amo_2005310
Spring Dust Storms Scour Chi …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Just as flowering and greeni …
YellowSea_TMO_2005110
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2005-04-20
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier YellowSea_TMO_2005110
Spring Dust Storms Scour Chi …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
A river of dust stretched hu …
China_TMO_2005118
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2005-04-28
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier China_TMO_2005118
Dust and Sand Sweeps Over No …
PIA04354
Sol (our sun)
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroR …
Title Dust and Sand Sweeps Over Northeast China
Original Caption Released with Image The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) captured these views of the dust and sand that swept over northeast China on March 10, 2004. Information on the height of the dust and an indication of the probable dust source region are provided by these images, which include a natural-color snapshot from MISR's nadir camera (left), a stereoscopically-retrieved height field (center) and a map of terrain elevation (right). The dust appears in the natural-color image as the pale brownish ripples that traverse the image from Inner Mongolia toward the southeast, over Beijing, Liaoning and Jilin Provinces. MISR's stereoscopic feature matching algorithm retrieves height above the surface where there is sufficient spatial contrast between several view angles. When the stereo matcher determines that a location is not covered by a feature above the surface, the terrain elevation data are displayed instead. The surface elevation map at right shows that the eastern portion of the image area, Liaonang and Jilin Provinces, is mostly low, flat terrain. These are the areas where the dust appears to be thickest and where the stereo height field indicates that the tops of the dust attain heights of up to about 1500 meters above the surface terrain. Clouds are situated between about 1 and 4 kilometers above the surface. The retrieved heights shown here are uncorrected for wind effects. The square-shaped area near the center of the stereo map is an artifact of the data processing. Areas where height could not be retrieved are shown in dark grey. A decrease in spring vegetation coverage in central and eastern Inner Mongolia has been suggested to be a major contributor to spring dust storms over northern China. http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2004/2003JD003913.shtml The Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously and every 9 days views the entire globe between 82 degrees north and 82 degrees south latitude. These data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 22481. The panels cover an area of 380 kilometers x 685 kilometers, and utilize data from blocks 54 to 58 within World Reference System-2 path 121. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology.
Fingerprints in the Dust
PIA03405
Sol (our sun)
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroR …
Title Fingerprints in the Dust
Original Caption Released with Image These MISR nadir-camera images of eastern China compare a somewhat hazy summer view from July 9, 2000 (left) with a spectacularly dusty spring view from April 7, 2001 (middle). The left-hand and middle images are from Terra orbits 2967 and 6928, respectively, and extend from central Manchuria near the top to portions of North and South Korea at the bottom. They are approximately 380 kilometers in width. Asia's desert areas are prone to soil erosion, as underground water tables are lowered by prolonged drought and by industrial and agricultural water use. Heavy winds blowing eastward across the arid and sparsely vegetated surfaces of Mongolia and western China pick up large quantities of yellow dust. Airborne dust clouds from the April 2001 storm blew across the Pacific Ocean and were carried as far as North America. The minerals transported in this manner are believed to provide nutrients for both oceanic and land ecosystems. According to the Xinhua News Agency in China, nearly one million tons of Gobi Desert dust blow into Beijing each year. During a similar dust outbreak last year, the Associated Press reported that the visibility in Beijing had been reduced the point where buildings were barely visible across city streets, and airline schedules were significantly disrupted. The dust has also been implicated in adverse health effects such as respiratory discomfort and eye irritation. The image on the right is a higher resolution MISR nadir-camera view of a portion of the April 7, 2001 dust cloud. It covers an area roughly 250 kilometers wide by 470 kilometers high. When viewed at full magnification, a number of atmospheric wave features, like the ridges and valleys of a fingerprint, are apparent. These are probably induced by surface topography, which can disturb the wind flow. A few small cumulus clouds are also visible, and are casting shadows on the thick lower dust layer. Analyses of images such as these constitute one phase of MISR's participation in the Asian-Pacific Regional Aerosol Characterization Experiment, an international campaign aimed at studying the offshore transport of airborne particles from the Asian continent. For more about this international endeavor, see http://saga.pmel.noaa.gov/aceasia/. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology.
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