January 24, 2009
International: Unhealthy PM10 levels in Thailand
The weather has been hot and clear here in KL, so I decided to explore the satellite images here in SE Asia today, the eve of the Chinese New Year. GoogleEarth enabled me to link together several files from RapidResponse to get an overall view. The main areas of haze are in southern Thailand.
The Thai Pollution Control Division indicates unhealthful PM10 levels in southern Thailand with four of their PM10 sites over 100 ug/m3 and a max reading of 195 ug/m3 (image at left below is the Thai AQI where yellow is unhealthful; note that in the US AQI PM10 levels of 50-150 ug/m3 are moderate and 150-250 ug/m3 are unhealthy). The Singapore Meteorological Services Division shows a number of 'hot spots' from fires in Cambodia and prevailing winds from east to west, so perhaps some of the haze is smoke as well as local pollution. The number of fires in Indonesia seem to be increasing from last week, as well.
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Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! Gong xi fa cai!
Posted by Jill Engel-Cox at January 24, 2009 9:47 PM