Lying between the Himalaya Range in the northeast and the Pir Panjal Range in the southwest, the Vale of Kashmir is an intermontane valley that houses a substantial portion of Kashmir's population. In early December 2008, haze neatly filled this valley, leaving skies clear over the surrounding snowcapped peaks. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured this image on December 4. In this shot, the haze appears dull gray, darker than the pristine snow nearby. The haze may have resulted from a combination of smoke from agricultural fires and urban smog.