1/26: China's pollution problem

From a great collection of images called <a href="http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/">NASA's Visible Earth</a> comes this shot of the smog problem in eastern China - so dense that it's nearly opaque. I wonder what this looks like from the other side? There are parts of the country that are completely hidden.

Most of the map is covered with dense clouds.

Just because light doesn't come through doesn't mean it doesn't go through.

Is it really smog? If so then wow!

I remember reading something a while ago about gigantic dust storms that start in Mongolia and can blow all the way to the California coast. Wherever I read that even included a picture that looked a lot like that one.