6/30: Haze pollution

[IMG]pictures/newark1.jpg[/IMG]

Look closely at these two images and you see a difference. In the top image, you can see the NYC skyline in the background. In the bottom image, you can't. The city is gone!

These two shots were taken from a webcam in Newark, seven miles from that skyline, and they show the effect of haze.

Haze is a type of air pollution. Turns out that sulfur in fuels is released into the air as little particles. These particles then absorb water vapor and - this is the trick - grow to about the same size as the wavelength of visible light. So they scatter light into white murkiness, and that light doesn't reach your eyes. Thus, the city disappears.

All that noted, air pollution is much better today than it was 30 years ago.

For a similar but more close up shot.. stand on the Bay Ridge (Brooklyn) pier (forget exact ave.).. you know the newly rebuilt one.. and look in the direction of Manhattan.

I'm sorry, when I saw that this was taken in Newark, it immediately lost all credibility.

We drive through Newark to get to NYC, because my mother is too reluctant to take anything but the turnpikes. There were times when we had to have our lights on because of all the stuff floating around there.

~Mike

Another good image would be to look at the Philadelphia skyline from Cottman and I-95. In the morning, it looks pristine...but look at it at 2 in the afternoon and it's another story.

Another one of the very few nice things about Washington, DC--very little smog.

There's no smog in DC, but there's plenty of haze. "Hazy, hot, and humid" is standard summer weather there.

You can see it on a hot day out my way pretty easily -- there's several small ridges around, and they disappear into the haze. If I can't see the ridge between 202 and 30 when I go in to work, I know it's going to be viciously hot and humid!

In 20 years ill sit back and laugh while all those american SUV driver hack out thier lungs. Pity the rest of you will be too....
Someone considered organsing a cityiwde surgical-mask day, kinda get the point accross, everyone wearings those. Better yet clean them all out at the end of the day, and pour all the crap into open windows on SUVs!!!!!

One for Chicago

If you drive north on I-55, going towards Chicago, you can see what kind of a day it's going to be by just looking at the downtown skyline. On clear cool days, I can see Sears Tower all the way from the suburban town of Darien. In the most haze fogged day, I can't see the tower until I get past Cicero avenue on I-55 and even then it's a dim ghost.

-Cyc

Re: 6/30: Haze pollution

Cyc, that is one of my favorite skyline shots...rolling into Chicago on 55...I may have some shots I took from that vantage point...will have to dig around.

I miss Chicago

Russotto, as you pointed out, DC is indeed hot, hazy, and humid. (Except for last year...it was amazingly pleasant all summer...mid 80s, low humidity...ah!) The fact that Washington, DC has very little industry is a boost to that city's relative cleanliness (at least on Capitol Hill and in the Northwest).

Now, define negative growth, because that is a bit confusing to me...considering that we only lost 68,000 people overall from 1990-2000, well WELL below the original estimates. Is this the slow down or lack of growth in the region as a whole?

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Originally posted by sycamore You mean the weather, or the politicians? I do remember the summer of '99...yep, that was a mess...people in Maryland tattling on each other over water restrictions...heh.

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Originally posted by sycamore I miss Chicago

Used to live in Newark

Hope this photographer doesn't leave his camera in his car too long or it will be last time he sees that shiny SLR. I had my window smashed just because I had a hook for a radar detector on my windshield. I refuse to even visit that filthy city anymore. It is a shame too because Newark had a lot of potential at one point in its history.

Chicagoscapes

Actually Cyc (and anyone else), you might be interested in my <A HREF="http://syc75.tripod.com/chicago.html">Chicagoscapes</a> photo gallery on my website.

Re: Chicagoscapes

Syc,

Thanks for showing me your Chicago pics. Definitely the good stuff. =). Have you gone up on the Observation Deck on Sears Tower? Great views there from the Tallest Building In The World with lots of good Kodak Moments (architectural differences aside, Sears Tower is the REAL building, unlike the "spires" at Petronas Towers in Malyasia).

And nothing beats summer in Chicago than a good baseball game at Wrigley Field and then the annual Consumption of Mass Quantities Festival, formally known as the Taste of Chicago. Oh yeah, throughout my childhood, I often went to the Museum of Science and Industry. It's still my favorite museum. I just love that huge mini-train town they have, and the OmniMax theatre, and the U-505, and the mine shaft and I could go on and on.

You probably know this, just a few blocks east of the Museum of Science and Industry lies the eminent University of Chicago. That's where I got my education from pre-school to 8th grade at Laboratory Schools. The U of C has a good sculpture next to "The Reg" (U of C's monstrous library), titled "Nuclear" marking the spot where mankind harnessed the power of the atom. A good photo op. =)

And I can't forget the best pizza restaurant in Chicago (and all of North America), Lou Malnati's Pizzeria, home of the best old style Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. I tell you, you haven't had real pizza until you taste this.

Oh yeah, my favorite Chicago movie? I have two: "Ferris Bueller's Day off" and "The Fugitive". =P

-Cyc

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