<p>The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image of the South China sea, with Tropical Depression 26w swirling in the southern part of the South China Sea.
</p><p>This photo also features a rare glimpse of Southern China, which is normally covered in cloud cover. 
Major cities like Hong Kong, can be seen east of the Pearl River Delta near the top of the image, and Hainan Island and Vietnam can is also shown in the photo. 
</p>
Marine Stratocumulus clouds and mostly fog covers much of the northern part of the South China Sea, but barely above land. This is formed when the cool air of the northeast monsoon, spills into the warm South China Sea, gathering moisture evaporated from the sea, condensing into fog or low lying clouds. As the wind continues to move south the wind blows the fog deep into inland Vietnam, before being halted by the mountains of central Indochina, which can be seen in the image.
NASA, MODIS Rapid Response System
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/wms/?zoom=5&amp;lat=13.44434&amp;lon=116.5752&amp;layers=000B0FFFFT&amp;datum1=12/11/2011">http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/wms/?zoom=5&amp;lat=13.44434&amp;lon=116.5752&amp;layers=000B0FFFFT&amp;datum1=12/11/2011</a>
12/11/2011