No Need to Smoke in Beijing!
You can save money on cigarettes in Beijing. No need to light up; just go outside and take a deep breath. You can see the vast belt of smog in this photo from NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite that was taken on Sunday. [readon]
The white patches, bottom left and right, are clouds. The grey swath that starts bottom left and goes to top right is smog. And the lighter gray or darker white is clouds above the smog. Basically, this huge swath of smog is covering much of northeastern China.
Air quality is considered unsafe when smog particles are more than 100 micrograms per cubic meter. On Sunday, when the NASA photos was taken, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing recorded smog particles at 900 mcgs per cubic meter.
More photos at the daily Atlantic Cities.