earth · one frame a day from orbit
Dust & smoke
Aerosol optical depth: how much dust, smoke and haze is in the whole air column, measured from orbit.
Dust & smoke is a Pro layer. Open it in the app to see what is behind it.
Open in the app Pro · 9 USDWhat it shows
Aerosol optical depth: how much dust, smoke and haze is in the whole air column, measured from orbit. It covers deserts and oceans as well as cities, but it measures the column, not the air at street level. Saharan dust, boreal smoke and winter inversions show up at continental scale.
Where the data comes from
NASA EOSDIS GIBS: MODIS Terra aerosol optical depth (3 km) and the combined value-added AOD; daily.
Reading the map
From clear air (dark blue) through teal and yellow to AOD 2.0 (dark red-purple, thick dust or smoke).
Units Aerosol optical depth at 550 nm (no unit).
Put this map on your site
Writing about it? Embed this live map: one iframe, free, no tracking, it stays up to date on its own.