SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- NASA scientists said Wednesday their Aura satellite is producing clear but disturbing images of a huge brown cloud over South Asia and the Indian Ocean.
The researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the cloud is a persistent, but moving, air mass characterized by a mixed-particle haze, typically brown in color. It also contains other pollution, such as ozone.
"The beautiful, high-detail images from this new instrument promise to help us sort out our major questions about how much of the tropospheric ozone is from pollution and how much is from natural factors," said Robert Chatfield, a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
Analysis shows ozone in the lower atmosphere over the Indian Ocean comes from the intensely developed industrial-agricultural areas in the region. The southern pollutant buildup has long-range effects, often traveling across Africa, further than the brown cloud of particles, Chatfield said.
