November 8, 2009
Moderate to Unhealthy conditions in US; Thick smog over Delhi
Today California, Midwest, and portions of Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states experienced moderate to unhealthy levels of PM2.5 (top, left).
According to the forecast discussion for Liberty/Clairton area in Pennsylvania the air quality peaks were due to a high pressure area situated across the Southeastern US and which was also responsible for the higher temperatures we enjoyed today here in the Mid-Atlantic region. They are expecting a temperature inversion to occur this Monday which will allow a code orange to build up, remaining an Air Quality Action Day for PM 2.5 in Liberty/Clairton, PA.
From MODIS Aqua RGB (top, right) we see some haze or maybe smoke over the Great Lakes region again and AOD around 0.4 like yesterday (bottom, left). There is a chance that what we see is actually smoke since HMS at NOAA reported some this morning over northern Illinois/southern Wisconsin.
As winter approaches, smog problems in India seems to be increasing significantly. Local news reported that flights in Delhi are being delayed and two fatal accidents occured due to the reduced visibilty yesterday. Also yesterday, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) issued a press release saying that Delhi has already lost the gains of its CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) program which started in the late 90's and caused a decrease in the concentration of many of the greenhouse gases. That's bad news...
For more information, please refer to the CSE press release and to this very nice report at WorstPolluted.org. MODIS image of Delhi today is shown below (right).
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