The 1997 Southeast Asian haze was a large-scale air quality disaster which occurred during the second half of 1997, its after-effects causing widespread atmospheric visibility and health problems within Southeast Asia. The total costs of the Southeast Asian haze are estimated at US$9 billion due mainly to health care and disruption of air travel and business activities.
The influence of the 1997 fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra on ambient air quality was evident by July and peaked in September/October before weakening by November, when the delayed monsoonal rain extinguished the fires and improved air quality within the region. During the peak episode, satellite imagery (NASA/TOMS aerosol index maps) showed a haze layer which expanded over an area of more than 3 million km², covering large parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan. Its northward extension partially reached Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Thailand. During this period, particulate matter concentrations frequently exceeded national ambient air quality standards. Monthly mean horizontal visibility at most locations in Sumatra and Kalimantan in September was below 1 km and daily maximum visibility was frequently below 100 metres.
Read more about 1997 Southeast Asian Haze: Countries Affected, Causes, Effects, Responses in The Region
Famous quotes containing the words asian and/or haze:
“Exploitation and oppression is not a matter of race. It is the system, the apparatus of world-wide brigandage called imperialism, which made the Powers behave the way they did. I have no illusions on this score, nor do I believe that any Asian nation or African nation, in the same state of dominance, and with the same system of colonial profit-amassing and plunder, would have behaved otherwise.”
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