NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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Dense patches of red points in East Asia can be seen in the animation above. These correspond with intense forest fires, sending vast quantities of aerosols into the atmosphere. Although this animation may give the impression that the fires and plumes of aerosols may not be connected, in fact they are. There's a direct relationship between those fire points and the brown patches appearing to the East.

The visualization, based on research by NASA scientist Hongbin Yu, shows the seasonal variations of transport of pollution aerosols across the North Pacific. The East Asian airstream carries its largest pollution loading in spring and smallest in summer and fall. With heavy concentrations of aerosols represented by shades of brown, scientists can track the origins and distribution of the particles as they travel in the atmosphere. The sequence also shows a trail of substantial aerosol concentrations from a variety of sources. These sources include heavy industrial activity in East Asia associated with high population density represented in this sequence by gradations of black covering the land surface, and intense Russian forest fires in high latitudes.

Credit: The Scientific Visualization Studio at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center