Smoke over India

2001/02/09 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Ingurumena

You hear again and again that the air is polluted. The visible dirty layer at a glance often covers large cities. The satellite can also capture these images. What is visible above is the Indian Ocean and, looking well, you can appreciate part of the ocean and the greyish fog that covers India. Although it seems incredible, fog is caused by massive wood burning.

The INDOEX project analyzes air polluting aerosols. In 1999 the situation of the Indian Ocean was investigated and, among other things, aerosols have deduced that in winter the sea receives between 10-20% less light. Data collected through INDOEX are subsequently used by scientists to develop climate models. INDOEX allows models to take into account the influence of aerosols on climate change.

As for the Indian Ocean, the news is not very satisfactory. In India the forest is burned to prepare agricultural land and in the kitchens of the houses wood and excrement is used as fuel. As a result, a pollution layer covering a million square kilometers of surface has formed over India. Throughout this march, in the air pollution ranking, Asia rapidly atrocities western countries.