Shuttle-Mir Program Earth Science Early Results

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Atmospheric Phenomena: Smog, Smoke, and Dust

Smog

The astronauts and cosmonauts have the field of view to observe regional atmospheric events, including human-induced phenomena like smoke and smog, and dust storms. Although the photographs may not be pretty, they contain valuable data about the areal extent, the boundaries, the thickness, and the longevity of events, both large and small.	NM22-729-010 Italian Aerosols A thick haze or smog pall covers the north Italian plain and creeps up into some of the valleys in the Alps to the north (left). This scene is common in the late summer-early fall over central Europe.

NM21-763-093 Moonrise over Asia Thick atmospheric haze blankets central Asia as the moon rises above the horizon.
	NM22-731-090 Haze over northern India The front range of the Himalayan Mountains effectively bounds the smog and haze prodcued over the Indian plain (right side of the image). In contrast, the air mass over the Tibetan plateau (left) is crystal clear.

     Fires

NM21-735-062 Mongolian Fires In April, 1996, Mongolian forest fires raged out of control for more than three weeks. More than 80 fires consumed the land, and the smoke pall from the fires was described by the Mir 21 crew members as the worst smoke they had ever seen from orbit. This view captures part of the thick smoke palls from the burning forests on the Mongolian Steppe.

NM21-743-056 Forest Fires, Russian Far East and Mongolia Late spring fires in the boreal forests in the Russian far east are annual occurrences. Prior to the NASA-Mir missions, NASA has had little coverage of this event. Photography of these fires during Mir 21 (NASA 2) and Mir 23 (NASA 4) provided a first view of the extent of these fires. These fires are burning in a region just southeast of Lake Baikal, near the Mongolian border.

NM21-749-078 Kalahari fires Burning and smoke in the Kalahari desert in southern Africa is a common place view from orbit. This photograph of Kalahari smoke plumes was taken in mid-June 1996, The image is unique because the smoke plumes are not carried by low level winds. Instead, the smoke rises and spreads out from the fire uniformly, looking like smoke "pancakes" when viewed from space. Some of the fires are hot enough to support small cumulus clouds on top of the smoke (the small puffy white clouds in the middle of the gray smoke pancakes).

NM23-87-015 Fire Scars Over Central Asia The Space Shuttle flies over central Asia (exact location unknown). The streaks are large fire scars in the scrub. The fires start at a point and fan out down wind.

NM21-774-082 Yellowstone National Park, Summer Vegetation recovery following fire: Yellowstone Lake sits near the middle of the scene. Large fire scars from the extensive forest fires in 1988 are still visible as lighter green areas, especially along the western boundary of the park (line extending from upper left to top center). The fire scars are highlighted by snow in the winter scene (NM22-727- 024).

NM22-727-024 Yellowstone National Park, Winter Vegetation recovery following fire: This wide, winter view (January 1997) of Yellowstone Park shows the progressive recovery of land scarred by fires in 1988. The fire scars are still visible as white streaks along with the western park boundary.

     Dust

NM21-748-040 Large dust storm blowing westward over the Atlantic Ocean from Mauritania
	NM21-775-073 Local dust storm blowing in Iraq

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science Directorate. Recommended Citation: Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. "The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth." .
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