A gray pall of haze filled the skies over much of southeastern China on November 30, 2003, while more than a dozen fires (red pixels) dotted the landscape around Hong Kong. (The black polygon toward the bottom center of this scene shows Hong Kong’s location.)
The coastal waters along southeast Asia appear turquoise and tan, probably due to a heavy load of sediments carried by rivers into the sea as well as ocean-bottom sediments churned up by the series of storms that has passed through the Western Pacific in recent weeks. In particular, Typhoon Nepartak brought high winds and heavy rains to the region in late November.
Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC