File:Kashmir Valley, India (MODIS 2016-11-17).jpg

English: The bowl-like basin of the Kashmir Valley sits between the Pir Panjal Mountains in the southwest and the Himalayan Mountains in the northeast. About 3 million people live within this small, scenic valley, which stretches roughly 93 mi (150 km) long and 26 mi (42 km) wide.

On November 7, 2016, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured a true-color image of haze filling the Kashmir Valley. In this image, the air in the valley appears a dingy gray, completely obscuring the green floor of the basin from view. The haze also creeps into smaller valleys between peaks of the Pir Panjal Range and a thin veil of blue-gray haze hangs over the flatland south of these mountains. The snow-covered peaks of the tall Himalayans are crisp and clear, evidence that the air north of the Kashmir Valley is haze-free.

Most of the haze likely was created from human activities such as charcoal production, burning of biomass and the use of diesel fuel. The haze hangs near the ground due to a temperature inversion - a situation where warm, buoyant air moves over cooler, denser air. The warm air effectively forms a lid over the cooler air, keeping it trapped below. Such inversions are not unusual over the Kashmir Valley, particularly in fall and spring.