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| Titel |
Aerosols and water vapor dynamics over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia |
| VerfasserIn |
Ashraf Farahat, Hesham El-Askary, Abdulaziz Al-Shaibani, Umran Dogan |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2014
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 16 (2014) |
| Datensatznummer |
250088030
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2014-2104.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contains a vast desert area and the home of some of the largest
deserts worldwide. This nature subjects the area to numerous dust storms. This is in addition
to local emissions transported from industrial activities. The Arabian Peninsula dust storms
have a major impact on air quality and affects dust cycle around the world. The nature of dust
also affects air, ground traffics, and human health. Aerosols play a pivotal role in
global climate change through their effects on the hydrological cycle and solar
energy budget. Recently there have been some trials to study the nature of dust
over the kingdom using satellite remote sensing and modeling to investigate the
impact of aerosols of natural and anthropogenic origins from both local emissions
and long-range transport on the air quality and atmospheric composition, yet a lot
more needs to be done. In this study, data obtained from the Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board of Terra and Aqua satellites are used to
analyze aerosols properties over the thirteen provinces of the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia from April 2003 to January 2012. This analysis will help to characterize
aerosol and cloud properties, and the seasonal hydrological factors to establish the
relative contributions of aerosols derived from different regions to the different
Saudi provinces and their impacts on local atmospheric composition and air quality.
During this period, we have examined possible nature and anthropogenic/natural
aerosols/dust sources. The analysis is based on important parameters including the aerosol
optical depth (AOD), fine mode fraction (FMF), cloud properties including cloud
top temperature (CTT), cloud top pressure (CTP) and the water vapor column.
Correlation between water vapor and AOD was observed over three provinces which
could be a result of pollution aerosols rather than dust and is, hence, acting as cloud
condensation nuclei (CCN). Increasing anomalous aerosols pattern over 2010-2012 is also
observed.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by the King Abdel
Aziz City for Science & Technology (KACST) for funding this work under grant
No. (MT-110-010). The support provided by the Deanship of Research at King
Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) is gratefully acknowledged. |
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