November 5, 2006
Shanghai Diary
We don't normally blog about non-US topics but I'm in Shanghai for four days for a WMO meeting and I thought I'd pass along some observations.
When we came into China from the northwest (yes, northwest, figure that route out. We went over Lake Baikal almost), it was perfectly clear and so hazy that you couldn't see the surface. When we dropped down to about 7.5 km altitude, I could barely start to make out the surface features.
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So my estimate of the slant visibility is about 10 km or less and this would correspond to a scattering coefficient of about 0.4 km^-1. Hazy.
Arriving at the Pudong Airport in Shanghai, you can take a bus, taxi or train. I recommend train.
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Can't see the speed indicator?
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Yep, 338 km/h on the Maglev. We actually got to 500 km/hr but I was too scared to take a photo. 40 km from the airport to town in 8 minutes. (I think that was a Jefferson Airplane Song).
Taking the cab from the Subway station to my hotel (big mistake...had another subway station 1 block from my hotel), I shot the following picture of Shanghai. It is way thicker than 0.4 km^-1. I can't see the buildings more than a block from my hotel. We'll see as the day progresses whether it clears any. Cheers, from Shanghai.
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