文档介绍：第六篇
Air Pollution Cloud Measured on Both Sides of Pacific
Scientists watched closely last spring as a haze of pollution, which had been tracked by satellite as it crossed the Pacific Ocean, settled1 over a large swath of2 North America from Calgary, Canada, into Arizona. Now it appears that, for the first time, researchers on both sides of the Pacific took detailed measurements of the same plume, a cloud that contained Gobi desert3 dust as well as hydrocarbons from industrial pollution.
Heather Price, a University of Washington doctoral student in chemistry, found that the amount of light reflected by the particles in the air was more than 550 percent greater than normal for that time of year. The mass of Asian air4 contained elevated levels of all pollutants measured. Price said, "but the only thing that came close to being alarming5 was the level of particulate matter. "
The haze that settled across the western part of the country was widely reported by the news media, and it was measured as far inland as the ski slopes of Aspen, Colo6.
Readings on the western side of the Pacific came from the Aerosol7 Characterization Experiments, a project aimed at understanding how particles in the atmosphere affect Earth's climate. Additional measurements were taken in the same region at the same time under a project sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration8.
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