TY - JOUR
T1 - Characteristics of Atmospheric Aerosols Over the UAE Inferred From CALIPSO and Sun Photometer Aerosol Optical Depth
AU - Nelli, Narendra
AU - Fissehaye, Samson
AU - Francis, Diana
AU - Fonseca, Ricardo
AU - Temimi, Marouane
AU - Weston, Michael
AU - Abida, Rachid
AU - Nesterov, Oleksandr
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Dr. Annalisa Molini and Dr. Peter Armstrong, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE, for sharing the Masdar AERONET data used in this study. This data were downloaded from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center website (https://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/). The CALIPSO data were obtained from NASA’s Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center (https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/). The authors would also like to acknowledge NASA for storing and maintaining both datasets, and making them publicly available to the scientific community. We would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for his/her detailed and insightful comments and suggestions, which helped to significantly improve the quality of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021. The Authors.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - This study provides insights on the composition and variability of atmospheric aerosols over the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by analyzing the atmospheric conditions together with 14 years (2006–2019) of aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieved from CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) satellite, and 7 years of AOD measured from the ground-based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET). We found that mineral dust is the most prevailing aerosol subtype. In addition, polluted dust and polluted continental aerosols are observed mostly in the cold season. The AOD is higher in spring and summer, when the atmospheric conditions are more favorable to the occurrence of dust events. Moreover, there is another peak in winter associated with dust storms triggered by mid-latitude baroclinic systems. In summer’s daytime, extinction coefficients in excess of 0.2 km−1 are observed up to 3–4 km above the surface, as a result of the warmer and windier conditions. In the cold season and at night, the dust layers are confined to the lower atmosphere below 2 km. On a climatological time scale, we found that the AOD over the UAE has been decreasing since 2009, possibly due to the increasing trend in precipitation and changes in land use. This study highlights the large contribution of dust aerosols to the total aerosol load over the UAE and stresses on the need to account for mineral dust aerosols in climate-air pollution related studies as well as weather and air quality forecasts.
AB - This study provides insights on the composition and variability of atmospheric aerosols over the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by analyzing the atmospheric conditions together with 14 years (2006–2019) of aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieved from CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) satellite, and 7 years of AOD measured from the ground-based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET). We found that mineral dust is the most prevailing aerosol subtype. In addition, polluted dust and polluted continental aerosols are observed mostly in the cold season. The AOD is higher in spring and summer, when the atmospheric conditions are more favorable to the occurrence of dust events. Moreover, there is another peak in winter associated with dust storms triggered by mid-latitude baroclinic systems. In summer’s daytime, extinction coefficients in excess of 0.2 km−1 are observed up to 3–4 km above the surface, as a result of the warmer and windier conditions. In the cold season and at night, the dust layers are confined to the lower atmosphere below 2 km. On a climatological time scale, we found that the AOD over the UAE has been decreasing since 2009, possibly due to the increasing trend in precipitation and changes in land use. This study highlights the large contribution of dust aerosols to the total aerosol load over the UAE and stresses on the need to account for mineral dust aerosols in climate-air pollution related studies as well as weather and air quality forecasts.
KW - AERONET
KW - CALIPSO
KW - United Arab Emirates (UAE)
KW - aerosol extinction coefficient
KW - aerosol optical depth (AOD)
KW - dust
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U2 - 10.1029/2020EA001360
DO - 10.1029/2020EA001360
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85108828528
SN - 2333-5084
VL - 8
JO - Earth and Space Science
JF - Earth and Space Science
IS - 6
M1 - e2020EA001360
ER -