Analysis of intense dust storms over the eastern Mediterranean in March 2018: Impact on radiative forcing and Athens air quality

Kaskaoutis, D. G.; Dumka, U. C.; Rashki, Alireza; Psiloglou, Basil Ε.; Gavriil, Ariadne; Mofidi, Abbas; Petrinoli, Kalliopi; Karagiannis, Dimitris; Kambezidis, H. D.

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2019.04.025

Cited by 43 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…The results showed that the highest b sca,550 and b abs,520 levels during the lockdown were associated with low WS < 3 ms −1 , similarly to previous works [56,76]. A mostly similar pattern was observed for b abs,520 in the previous years, while enhanced values from southern directions and for WS of 4-6 ms −1 were observed for b sca,550 due to intense dust intrusions from the south, such as that on 25-27 March 2018 [77]. Therefore, the distributions of b sca and b abs values in the wind roses did not significantly change, apart from the lower levels due to lower emissions during the lockdown period.…”

Section: Meteorological Conditions In Athens During the Spring Seasonsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Focusing on scattering (Figure 9a), the highest bsca,550 values (>80 Mm −1 ) are associated with very high SAE (>2) during the lockdown period, indicating the prevalence of fine-mode aerosols in the Athens atmosphere, while there is also a higher possibility of lower bsca,550 and higher SAE values compared to the same periods (23 March-3 May) in 2017-2019. In the previous years, several cases indicate an enhanced presence of coarse-mode dust aerosols corresponding to very low SAE values (<0.5), mostly detected during the dust events in March 2018 [77]. Cases with SAE values in the range of 0.5-1.2, which mostly imply mixing of urban background with transported coarse particles, are also absent during the lockdown period but are fairly common during the spring season [70].…”

Section: Modifications In Spectral Aerosol Scattering and Absorptionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Assessment of the COVID-19 Lockdown Effects on Spectral Aerosol Scattering and Absorption Properties in Athens, Greece

et al. 2021

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COVID-19 is evolving into one of the worst pandemics in recent history, claiming a death toll of over 1.5 million as of December 2020. In an attempt to limit the expansion of the pandemic in its initial phase, nearly all countries imposed restriction measures, which resulted in an unprecedented reduction of air pollution. This study aims to assess the impact of the lockdown effects due to COVID-19 on in situ measured aerosol properties, namely spectral-scattering (bsca) and absorption (babs) coefficients, black carbon (BC) concentrations, single-scattering albedo (SSA), scattering and absorption Ångström exponents (SAE, AAE) in Athens, Greece. Moreover, a comparison is performed with the regional background site of Finokalia, Crete, for a better assessment of the urban impact on observed differences. The study examines pre-lockdown (1–22 March 2020), lockdown (23 March–3 May 2020) and post-lockdown (4–31 May 2020) periods, while the aerosol properties are also compared with a 3–4 year preceding period (2016/2017–2019). Comparison of meteorological parameters in Athens, between the lockdown period and respective days in previous years, showed only marginal variation, which is not deemed sufficient in order to justify the notable changes in aerosol concentrations and optical properties. The largest reduction during the lockdown period was observed for babs compared to the pre-lockdown (−39%) and to the same period in previous years (−36%). This was intensified during the morning traffic hours (−60%), reflecting the large decrease in vehicular emissions. Furthermore, AAE increased during the lockdown period due to reduced emissions from fossil-fuel combustion, while a smaller (−21%) decrease was observed for bsca along with slight increases (6%) in SAE and SSA values, indicating that scattering aerosol properties were less affected by the decrease in vehicular emissions, as they are more dependent on regional sources and atmospheric processing. Nighttime BC emissions related to residential wood-burning were slightly increased during the lockdown period, with respect to previous-year means. On the contrary, aerosol and pollution changes during the lockdown period at Finokalia were low and highly sensitive to natural sources and processes.

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Section: Meteorological Conditions In Athens During the Spring Seasonsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Modifications In Spectral Aerosol Scattering and Absorptionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Assessment of the COVID-19 Lockdown Effects on Spectral Aerosol Scattering and Absorption Properties in Athens, Greece

et al. 2021

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“…where

\frac{\partial T}{\partial t}

is the heating rate (K·day −1 ), C p is the specific heat capacity of the air at constant atmospheric pressure (1,006 J·kg −1 ·K −1 ), g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m·s −2 ), ∆ F is the ARF ATM (W·m −2 ), and ∆ P is the atmospheric pressure. Since, in this study, the major number of aerosols was at the height of 3 km, ∆ P was taken as 300 hPa (Singh et al ., 2016; Kaskaoutis et al ., 2019). The atmospheric heating rates before, during and after the dust‐storm ranged from 0.57 to 3.52 K·day −1 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air pollution in the Gobi Desert region: Analysis of dust‐storm events

Filonchyk

Peterson

Hurynovich

2021

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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Air pollutants in nine cities of the Gobi Desert region are examined in this study. Mean concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10, retrieved from ground‐based air quality monitoring stations, were 36.2 ± 23.7 and 97.3 ± 84.5 μg·m−3, respectively. The highest concentrations of pollutants were in spring and winter. This can be explained by wind‐borne dust in the spring and emissions from domestic sources during the winter heating season. The highest PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations were registered in a period of dust‐storm activity with values of 343 μg·m−3 and 1,642 μg·m−3. Generally, clean continental (CC) was the dominant aerosol type (73.9%), followed by mixed (MX) aerosol type (20.4%) with insignificant contribution of clean marine (CM) (2.1%), urban/industrial and biomass burning (UI/BB) (0.9%) and desert dust (DD) (2.7%) aerosol types. The various measures of pollution retrieved from AERONET stations, including aerosol optical depth (AOD), Ångström exponent (AE), asymmetry parameter (AP), single scattering albedo (SSA) and aerosol volume size distribution (AVSD), specify the content of coarse aerosol fractions in the period of dust activity. The aerosol radiative forcing at the bottom of the atmosphere (ARFBOA) and the top of the atmosphere (ARFTOA) during dust days were estimated to be −115.76 and −241.31 W·m−2, with a corresponding heating rate of 3.52 K·day−1. According to the backward and forward trajectories of air masses, the dust cloud moved to the east and southeast from the epicentre, affecting the eastern and the central parts of the country. This study may advise environmental policy, as it showed how controlling causes of pollution can improve air quality.

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“…These winds are associated with the southward movement of the trough and the cold front near the surface. The intense upper-troposphere winds and the increased baroclinicity caused violent wind speeds at the lower troposphere and the surface [95,96]. The Sistan Basin is highly affected by strong katabatic winds from the southern lee slopes of the Hazarajat Mountains to the plains ( Figure 10).…”

Section: Characteristics Of the Dust Stormmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric Dynamics from Synoptic to Local Scale During an Intense Frontal Dust Storm over the Sistan Basin in Winter 2019

et al. 2019

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The Sistan Basin has been recognized as one of the most active dust sources and windiest desert environments in the world. Although the dust activity in Sistan maximizes during the summer, rare but intense dust storms may also occur in the winter. This study aims to elucidate the atmospheric dynamics related to dust emission and transport, dust-plume characteristics, and impacts on aerosol properties and air quality during an intense dust storm over Sistan in February 2019. The dust storm was initiated by strong northerly winds (~20 ms−1) associated with the intrusion of a cold front from high latitudes. The upper-level potential vorticity (PV)-trough evolved into a cut-off low in the mid and upper troposphere and initiated unstable weather over Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. At the surface, density currents emanating from deep convective clouds and further strengthened by downslope winds from the mountains, caused massive soil erosion. The passage of the cold front reduced the temperature by ~10 °C and increased the atmospheric pressure by ~10 hPa, while the visibility was limited to less than 200 m. The rough topography played a major role in modulating the atmospheric dynamics, wind field, dust emissions, and transport pathways. Meso-NH model simulates large amounts of columnar mass dust loading (> 20 g m−2) over Sistan, while the intense dust plume was mainly traveling below 2 km and increased the particulate matter (PM10) concentrations up to 1800 µg m−3 at Zabol. The dust storm was initially moving in an arc-shaped pathway over the Sistan Basin and then it spread away. Plumes of dust covered a large area in southwest Asia, reaching the northern Arabian Sea, and the Thar desert one to two days later, while they strongly affected the aerosol properties at Karachi, Pakistan, by increasing the aerosol optical depth (AOD > 1.2) and the coarse-mode fraction at ~0.7.

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Analysis of intense dust storms over the eastern Mediterranean in March 2018: Impact on radiative forcing and Athens air quality

Cited by 43 publications

References 97 publications

Assessment of the COVID-19 Lockdown Effects on Spectral Aerosol Scattering and Absorption Properties in Athens, Greece

Assessment of the COVID-19 Lockdown Effects on Spectral Aerosol Scattering and Absorption Properties in Athens, Greece

Air pollution in the Gobi Desert region: Analysis of dust‐storm events

Atmospheric Dynamics from Synoptic to Local Scale During an Intense Frontal Dust Storm over the Sistan Basin in Winter 2019

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