South Koreans were treated to a rare weather phenomenon on Monday when yellow snow fell in the capital and elsewhere across the country. But the snow -- containing dust or sand from the desert regions of northern China -- could pose a health hazard, the country's meteorological office warned. A high concentration of the dust particles prompted the weather bureau to issue a yellow dust warning for the second time in three days. South Korea frequently gets sand or dust storms, but a yellow snow storm is rare. The agency said the yellow snow was a health hazard and officials have warned that the pollutants in the flurries included heavy minerals.
In this Aura imagery, the MODIS Blue Marble image is used as a background, clouds are represented by the OMI effective reflectivity, and dust by the OMI aerosol index. (You can also see smoke from biomass burning in Southeast Asia).
View Aura's OMI high resolution still Images of the dust storm
