Nothing like a stark data visualisation to impress upon you just how high-risk defilement has make in Beijing . Here you could see the levels of sulfur in the air over the past several eld in three likewise - sized regions of the worldly concern : on the far leftfield is the U.S. midwestern United States , the middle is eastern Europe , and the right is the Beijing area . arena shaded bolshy have the highest sulfur emissions . Created by researcher at the University of Maryland , Baltimore County , these paradigm are a pure monitor that economic development is often accompanied by environmental degradation .
The New York Times ’ Dot Earth blog asked one of the researchers , Simon Carn , to represent the orbiter photos . Carn said :
The images clearly show the high SO2 emission from sources in northeasterly China . China is the Earth ’s largest SO2 emitter , mostly due to the burning of high - sulfur ember in its many ember - fired office plants , which lack the technology used in many other countries to move out sulfur from weed slew emissions . The easterly Europe image shows a few SO2 ‘ hot spots ’ in Romania , Bulgaria , Greece and Turkey – these are probably also power works or metal smelters . The live spot in Sicily is the active volcano Mt Etna – volcanoes are probably the secondly largest beginning of SO2 after anthropogenic expelling .
The main realm of elevated SO2 in the USA image is the Ohio Valley and SW Pennsylvania , where there is a high-pitched concentration of coal - fired power plant life ( shown as diamond symbols on the trope ) .
The significance of SO2 ( apart from as a component of acid rain ) is that it is a forerunner of sulfate aerosol container ( sulphuric acid droplets ) , which is the primary factor of the haze often seen in polluted regions . Sulfate aerosol is a wellness hazard , limits visibility , degrades buildings , reflects solar radiation ( cool down the mood ) and also bear on cloud holding ( increasing their life-time and reducing rainfall ) .
No word on how the Formosan cloud - seed proficiency to prevent rain during the Olympics are affecting any of this .
What Will heal China ’s Sulfurous Skies?[Dot Earth ]
EcologyOlympicsScience
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