NOAA imagery: Pollution over China NOAA's Environmental
Visualization Laboratory posted the alarming image above on its
website, describing it as follows: Massive plumes of the gas
nitrogen dioxide can be seen hovering in the troposphere (low
atmosphere) above China. Nitrogen dioxide is a by-product of
fossil fuel combustion. The gas acts as a pollutant and also
promotes the formation of low-level ozone, which is harmful to
human health. Most major industrial areas have high
concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in the surrounding
atmosphere, though China's was the worst in October 2010. This
image was generated by accumulating all of the data taken during
the month of October by the GOME-2 sensor on board the MetOp-A
satellite flown by the European Space Agency. NOAA and ESA
openly share data from their satellites to help improve the
observing and understanding of the Earth's environment If you
find the image above scary, think about this: in its World
Energy Outlook released Tuesday, the International Energy A