haze

Some residents of British Columbia's Okanagan Valley were briefly enveloped in shades of pink and purple this morning.In Kelowna, a pink-hued fog appeared for several minutes shortly after 7:30 a.m. PT before returning to the more standard grey."I thought, 'OK, what's going on out there?'" said Lise Guyot of her reaction when she saw the world turn pink through her window, before she snapped some photos."It looked surreal."The pink fog appeared in parts of the Okanagan Valley at about 7:30 a.m. PT on Wednesday. (Lise…

An illustration of two water-rich exoplanets with hazy atmospheres. Credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa/Johns Hopkins UniversityScientists have made a significant breakthrough in simulating hazy conditions on water-rich exoplanets, offering new insights into the challenges of observing these distant worlds in the search for extraterrestrial life.Researchers have successfully simulated conditions that allow hazy skies to form in water-rich exoplanets. This is a crucial step in determining how haziness muddles observations by…

A gust of wind from the great white north has pushed Canadian wildfire smoke down into the Midwest. Cities around the Great Lakes region are now shrouded in smoke. Skylines are pretty hazy, and air quality has plummeted. Coastal Animals Are Thriving on Plastic Pollution Out in the Pacific Ocean | Extreme EarthIt may not be the movie filter-like orange haze that we saw over NYC earlier this June, but it’s still pretty damn bad. The air quality right now is categorized as extremely unhealthy, and it’s the worst of any major…

The Taihang Mountains have an adjusting effect on the meteorological conditions of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) in the North China Plain (NCP). For the thermal structure (figure b), the western part of the NCP near the mountains is significantly affected by drainage flow and subsidence warming, resulting in lower surface temperature, stronger elevated inversion layer, more stable atmospheric stratification, and worse conditions for vertical…

New York City officials canceled outdoor recess and suggested the most vulnerable wear high quality masks after a thick haze that blanketed skies triggered an overnight purple alert, the highest and most dangerous level. The health warning may last for at least another day, Mayor Eric Adams said in a press conference. Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Washington, DC, leaders also issued warnings. Airborne particles and toxins can cause complications for people…

New York officials issued an air quality health advisory for regions across the state, including New York City, Long Island, and New York City Metro. Smoke traveling from wildfires in Canada blanketed much of the state in a brown haze Wednesday, in some cases creating scenes that looked straight out of a disaster movie. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the State Department of Health issued the advisory over concerns about the levels of pollutants in the air. The state agencies explained in a…

Taylor Swift is living in a lavender haze. On Friday, the music star released the newest music visual for her song “Lavender Haze,” from her latest Midnights album. In the video, Swift dances around in a lavender dreamy world — which includes a maze of lavender, a field of flowers and large koi fish swimming behind the walls of her home — as she embraces being in love. Transgender model and artist Laith Ashley stars in the video as her love interest, who Swift has praised as being someone she…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sierra Domb, founder and CEO of the Visual Snow Initiative, about her journey with visual-snow syndrome – a neurological condition where people see tiny, snow-like flecks in their vision. It has been edited for length and clarity.One day in 2015, as I was driving to university, my vision went black. My vision returned moments later, but the world didn't look the same after that.It was like a veil was covering my eyes – like I was seeing the world through an analog TV…

(a) PM2.5 concentration averaged in 2013–20. The rectangular box indicates the NCP region. (b) Annual mean PM2.5 concentration and the contribution from ND over the NCP. The original data have been detrended. (c) Atmospheric extinction coefficient (1980–2013) derived from visibility and PM2.5 concentration data (2013–20) in September to December over the NCP on the subseasonal scale. The unit for extinction coefficient is km−1, and for PM2.5…

Effect of terrain on air pollution over the North China Plain region. Credit: Jingyi Liu The North China Plain (NCP), one of the world's most polluted regions, is frequently engulfed by severe haze in the cold season, which has aroused broad public concern because of the adverse impacts on air quality, atmospheric visibility, and human health.…