Just before sunrise this morning, I made my way up to Church
Hill to see if I could spot
Comet
Nishimura. However, the recent heatwave and associated atmospheric
conditions had combined to form an absolutely horrendous cloud of air pollution
that hung over the Medway valley in the form of a brown haze that you could
actually taste.
The smog pretty much put paid to any chance of seeing or photographing the
comet, although the sight of the crescent moon and crescent Venus rising over
the Medway bridge made the early morning start worthwhile.
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| A red haze of pollution hangs over the Medway Valley... |
Although difficult to see, I think the tiny comet and its tail is just about visible above the trees and to the left of Venus in the picture above, but it really is pretty much wiped out by the haze.
World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines state that with regards to airborne
micro-particulates (called PM 2.5s), 24-hour average exposures should not exceed
15 µg/m3 more than 3 - 4 days per year.
Data from the nearest working national atmospheric pollution monitoring station
at Stoke (the one on Chatham Hill being mysteriously out of action this past
week) show that PM 2.5s have been consistently well above the above WHO safe
limits for the past week. For much of today, PM 2.5s were over four times
that level!
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| Data from Stoke AMS, 4th to 11th September... |
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| Polluted sunrise as seen from Church Hill. The M2 viaducts can hardly be seen... |
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| Air pollution does at least make for some "atmospheric" sunrises... |
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| St. Michaels through the polluted Bakers Field sunrise air on Church Hill... |
