Eastern Asia
Eastern Asia shows in the NASA’s Terra satellite flew over Eastern Asia on a nearly cloud-free but hazy day in mid-September, 2015. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard that satellite captured this true-color image on September 14.
In the far north, a bank of clouds stretches over Russia, while the yellows of fall leaves can be seen in the Yablonovy Mountains in Russia near the western border of the image and in northern China. Thin lines of clouds also hang over Russia’s coastal region, near the Sea of Japan. The Korean Peninsula can be seen far south.
Fires also dot the landscape, especially in China. Each red hotspot is an area where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected temperatures higher than background. When combined with smoke, as most of these are, such hotspots are diagnostic for fire. The fires in China contribute to the haze over the region. East Asia has historically been the cradle of several ancient advanced civilizations such as ancient China, ancient Japan, ancient Korea, ancient Vietnam and the Mongol Empire. Major religions in East Asia include Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Taoism, and Shintoism.Popular languages in East Asia include Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Major ethnic groups of East Asia include the Han (Chinese), Yamato Japanese, and Koreans. There are 17 officially-recognized indigenous (minority) ethnic groups in East Asia;
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