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Arctic Haze

Believe it or not, this haze is seen from Svalbard, the northern most part of Norway. The haze comes from aerosols — from all over the world.

Their air samples have been found to contain dust from Asian deserts, salts that swell up moisture, particles from incomplete burning of organic material from forest and cooking fires, and all manner of nasties emitted by automobile tailpipes, factory smokestacks and power plants.

Collectively, they are a United Nations of pollution. Through chemical analysis, the particles can be traced to their sources throughout Asia, Europe and North America.

And the issue isn’t just dirty days, or spectacular sunsets but whether or not the haze is contributing to global warming, particularly in the Arctic where it is already known that soot particulate matter on the snow and ice is absorbing more heat and speeding the ice-melt.


Joling: AP

Further links provided in article to NOAA and NASA.