Reggie
Smith Photographs Asian Dust
At the Third Annual Citizen Science
Conference in January 2005, Reggie Smith mentioned his
upcoming stay in China. I asked if he might send some
photographs of the famous Chinese air pollution and
dust storms should he have the chance.
Reggie came through in a big way with
a nice selection of photos showing a thick blanket of
smog over Beijing. He writes, "Hello Forrest, I'm
sending you several pictures I took in Beijing from
the top of a hill in the center of the city in Beihai
Park and from the Forbidden City/Tiananmen Square. Since
it has become warm, a thick haze has begun to descend
on the city. It is grayish in color, scatters light
rather well, and hugs the ground closely. I think it
is smog, but I don't know what constituents it likely
is. Any ideas? I thought you might find this interesting."
The photographs are indeed interesting,
for they appear to show a very thick carbonaceous smog
from the burning of coal. Coal is a major source of
fuel for power plants and homes in China. When coal
was burned on a grand scale in London, the pollution
in that city resembled that shown in Reggie's photographs
.
China is well aware of the serious
air pollution problem caused by extensive coal burning,
agricultural fires and major dust storms. Chinese scientists
are studying the serious health and environmental effects
caused by air pollution in their country, some of which
arrives from India and Southeast Asia. One major finding
is that poor air quality in China is significantly reducing
the photosynthetic radiation in sunlight (the blue and
red bands) that makes plant growth possible. The magnitude
of this problem in evident in the satellite image in
Fig. 3, which shows pollution over large regions of
China so optically thick the ground cannot be seen through
it. Air pollution and dust from China often cross the
Pacific Ocean and reach North America.
Forrest M. Mims III 
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