Monday June 18, 2012
Satellite images show 163 hotspots in Sumatra
By ANDREA FILMER
PENANGITES woke up to a hazy Father’s Day which worsened as the day progressed, leaving the state on the brink of the ‘unhealthy’ Air Pollutant Index (API) level.
At 7am, the worse API reading in the state was seen in Seberang Prai at 88. It inched to 90 at 11am, before jumping to 98 at 5pm — just three points short of the ‘unhealthy’ category that begins at an API reading of 101.
The situation was only slightly better in Prai that went from 82 (7am) to 83 (11am) and finally recording an API reading of 88 at 5pm.
On Penang island, University Sains Malaysia started off with a reading of 73 at 7am which progressed to 80 at 5pm.
According to the Department of Environment website, the majority of the recorded pollution in the air at all three locations was particulate matter, also known as PM10.
The NOAA-18 satellite, which hovers over Borneo island, recorded a total of 163 hotspots in Sumatra as of 4.15pm yesterday, which is widely seen as a cause of the worsening haze.
A check with the Malaysian Meteorological Department showed that visibility in the state had also deteriorated during the day.
In Bayan Lepas, visibility started at 6km (8am to 1pm), then fell to 5km (1pm) and finally sunk to 4km (2pm to 5pm).
On Penang mainland, visibility was recorded at 6km (8am to 4pm) before falling to 5km around 5pm.
The Meteorological Department’s official portal also showed that no respite from Mother Nature is in sight with the weather forecast predicting no rain for the whole of this week.