Eye opener

Mind-blowing images.

Our atmosphere is awash with aerosols – microscopic specks of matter including dust, smoke, ash and salt. Humans are responsible for some of these particles, but most come from natural sources, such as volcanoes, dust storms and forest fires.

This NASA visualisation gives a snapshot of Earth’s aerosols on 23 August 2018. It was created by a computer model that combines readings taken by satellites and ground sensors, then overlays them on an image of Earth at night.

The oranges are a sooty material called ‘black carbon’. The vast swathe across the northwestern US mostly comes from wildfire smoke, while the plume over central Africa is caused by agricultural burning. The purples are dust particles blowing over deserts in Africa and Asia, while the blues are sea salt particles, lofted into the air by sea spray. The two swirls on the far right were created by tropical cyclones Soulik and Cimaron as they neared South Korea and Japan.