Celebrating National Chemistry Week 2003: Earth's Atmosphere and Beyond. NASA's Earth Observatory provides satellite imagery and scientific information about our home planet with a focus on Earth's climate and environmental change. On June 26, 2003, the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) captured this view of Code Red Air over much of eastern North America. The lower atmosphere exhibits thick, grayish haze all along the East Coast and out over the Atlantic Ocean—probably a combination of smoke and pollution from points to the north and west on the continent. A large low-pressure system still sits over the Gulf Stream, due east of the mid-Atlantic states. On the other side of the cloud band running across the lower right quadrant of the image the haze has more of a brownish tint. This is dust that has blown across the Atlantic Ocean from North Africa.
Image and information courtesy of NASA's Earth Observatory, SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE.
The cover was designed by Betsy True.
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