The Truth About Fog, Smog, and Vog

摘要

As a meteorologist, I am often jokingly asked if I study meteors for a living (incandescent streaks of light in the night sky caused by the disintegration of meteoroids). Meteorologists do, in fact, deal with hydrometeors, which are precipitation-sized particles that fall from the sky-namely rain, snow, sleet, and hail.rnAnother category of particles in the atmosphere is aerosols, 3 of which-fog, smog, and vog-are the topic of this highlight. Fog is perhaps the most obvious form, a cloud that develops while in contact with the ground, but fog is also a type of aerosol. Any cloud, fog included, is a suspension of tiny liquid droplets (or ice particles in the colder upper levels of the atmosphere).