Haze
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Haze is traditionally an
In meteorological literature, the word haze is generally used to denote visibility-reducing
Air pollution
Haze often occurs when suspended dust and smoke particles accumulate in relatively dry air. When weather conditions block the dispersal of smoke and other pollutants they concentrate and form a usually low-hanging shroud that impairs visibility and may become a respiratory health threat if excessively inhaled. Industrial pollution can result in dense haze, which is known as smog.
Since 1991, haze has been a particularly acute problem in Southeast Asia. The main source of the haze has been smoke from fires occurring in Sumatra and Borneo which dispersed over a wide area. In response to the
In the United States, the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) program was developed as a collaborative effort between the US EPA and the National Park Service in order to establish the chemical composition of haze in National Parks and establish air pollution control measures in order to restore the visibility of the air to pre-industrial levels.[4] Additionally, the Clean Air Act requires that any current visibility problems be addressed and remedied, and future visibility problems be prevented, in 156 Class I Federal areas located throughout the United States. A full list of these areas is available on EPA's website.[5]
In addition to the severe health issues caused by haze from air pollution, dust storm particles, and bush fire smoke, reduction in irradiance is the most dominant impact of these sources of haze and a growing issue for photovoltaic production as the solar industry grows.[6] Smog also lowers agricultural yield and it has been proposed that pollution controls could increase agricultural production in China.[7] These effects are negative for both sides of agrivoltaics (the combination of photovoltaic electricity production and food from agriculture).
International disputes
Transboundary haze
Haze is no longer just a confined as a domestic problem. It has become one of the causes of international disputes among neighboring countries. Haze can migrate to adjacent countries in the path of wind and thereby pollutes other countries as well, even if haze does not first manifest there. One of the most recent problems occur in Southeast Asia which largely affects the nations of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. In 2013, due to forest fires in Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur and surrounding areas became shrouded in a pall of noxious fumes dispersed from Indonesia, that brings a smell of ash and coal for more than a week, in the country's worst environmental crisis since 1997.
The main sources of the haze are Indonesia's Sumatra Island, Indonesian areas of Borneo, and Riau, where farmers, plantation owners and miners have set hundreds of fires in the forests to clear land during dry weather. Winds blew most of the particulates and fumes across the narrow Strait of Malacca to Malaysia, although parts of Indonesia in the path are also affected.[8] The 2015 Southeast Asian haze was another major crisis of air quality, although there were occasions such as the 2006 and 2019 haze which were less impactful than the three major Southeast Asian haze of 1997, 2013 and 2015.
Obscuration
Haze causes issues in the area of terrestrial photography and imaging, where the penetration of large amounts of dense atmosphere may be necessary to image distant subjects. This results in the visual effect of a loss of contrast in the subject, due to the effect of light
Haze can be defined as an aerial form of the
See also
- Arctic haze
- ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution
- Asian brown cloud
- Asian Dust
- Coefficient of haze
- Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution
- Fog
- Mist
- Saharan Air Layer
- Southeast Asian haze
- Smog
- Trail Smelter dispute
Notes
- ^ "WMO Manual on Codes" (PDF). [dead link]
- ^ ASEAN action hazeonline Archived 2005-02-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Singapore haze hits record high from Indonesia fires". BBC News. 21 June 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
- ^ "Improve – Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments". vista.cira.colostate.edu.
- ^ "Federal Class 1 Areas".
- S2CID 251430613.
- PMID 10570123.
- ^ "Hazardous haze shrouds Kuala Lumpur". NBC News. 11 August 2005.
- ^ Figure 1. "The setting sun dimmed by dense haze over State College, Pennsylvania on 16 September 1992". "Haze over the Central and Eastern United States". The National Weather Digest. March 1996. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
- ^ "UV, Skylight and Haze Filters". pages.mtu.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-06.