Eastern China
On September 22, 2002, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) detected a cluster of active fires burning just south of where China’s Huang He (Yellow River) empties into Bo Hai Bay. Smog sits heavily in the skies in the Anhui and Henan provinces at the lower left of the image. Numerous cities and town make small gray dots across the green landscape. At image right, the Shandong Peninsula separates Bo Hai Bay from the Yellow Sea. The coastal areas of both are filled with light brown sediment carried by large rivers: the Yellow River flowing into Bo Hai Bay, and the Yangtze flowing into the Yellow Sea.