Impact of the March 2009 dust event in Saudi Arabia on aerosol optical properties, meteorological parameters, sky temperature and emissivity

Maghrabi, Abdullrahman; Alharbi, Badr; Tapper, Nigel

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2011.01.071

Cited by 86 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The frequency of DS occurrence peaks during the pre-monsoon season (MarchMay), when dust aerosols are transported by south westerly winds from the arid and semi-arid regions around the Arabian Sea (Middleton, 1986;Ackerman and Cox, 1989). Some of these regions include the alluvial plains of Iraq, the plateau of Eastern Jordan, the Jazirah of Eastern Syria, the plains of Dhofar, the adjacent interior eastern Yemen, and the Empty-Quarter desert centred in Saudi Arabia (Maghrabi et al, 2011). In these regions, DS is a very frequent phenomenon.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Metal elements can bind to dust particles and therefore affect respiratory function (Hong et al, 2010). The regional dust is not only significantly harmful to health, but also to the ecological environment, agricultural activities (suppressing plant growth by blocking plant pores and disrupting photosynthesis), land use and soil formation, reduced soil fertility in dust storm source areas, chemical/elemental fluxes between continents and oceanic biogeochemical cycles, delivery of iron to the oceans, reduction of solar radiation that reach the ground, effect on air temperature, reduction of visibility that limits various activities, increases traffic accidents, and may increase the occurrence of vertigo in aircraft pilots (Prospero et al, 2008;Goudie , 2009;Tagaris et al, 2010;Maghrabi et al, 2011;Chang et al, 2013;Chiu et al, 2013;Gan et al, 2013;Delfino et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterization and Elemental Composition of Atmospheric Aerosol Loads during Springtime Dust Storm in Western Saudi Arabia

Alghamdi

Almazroui

Shamy

et al. 2015

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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Dust storm is a common phenomenonand, a severe environmental hazard in western Saudi Arabia. In this study, simultaneous measurement of PM 10 , PM 2.5 and PM 1.0 and elemental compositions analysis of PM 2.5 in Jeddah city during springtime (March 2012) dust storm (DS) and non-dust storm (non-DS) periods were carried out to investigate the impact of DS on the levels, characterization and elemental compositions of atmospheric particles. Results indicate that PM fractions concentrations were higher in DS environment compared to non-DS. The diurnal variation of PM fractions concentrations was uni-modal in non-DS environment and bimodal in DS. PM 1.0 /PM 10 , PM 2.5 /PM 10 and PM 2.5 /PM 2.5-10 ratios were relatively lower in DS, indicating that sand-dust events in spring carry much more coarse than fine particles to Jeddah. PM 10 , PM 2.5 and PM 1.0 in DS and PM 10 and PM 2.5 in non-DS might originate from similar sources. PM 10 , PM 2.5 , PM 1.0 in DS and PM 10 in non-DS were correlated negatively with relative humidity and positively with wind speed. PM 2.5 and PM 1.0 in non-DS were correlated positively with relative humidity and negatively with wind speed. The crustal elements accounted for 44.62 and 67.53% of the total concentrations of elements in non-DS and DS, respectively. The elements concentrations increased in DS, with highest DS/non-DS ratios for Ca, Si, Al and Fe. This indicates that the soil originating species contributed mainly in DS particles.The enrichment factors values and non-crustal fractions in both non-DS and DS indicate that the main sources of Na, Mg, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Rb and Sr are of a crustal type, whereas S, Cl, Co, Cu, Zn, Ga, As, Pb and Cd are anthropogenic. V and Ni in DS only are emitted from anthropogenic sources. The enrichment factors of these anthropogenic elements were lower in DS. They might originate mainly from local sources in Jeddah.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization and Elemental Composition of Atmospheric Aerosol Loads during Springtime Dust Storm in Western Saudi Arabia

Alghamdi

Almazroui

Shamy

et al. 2015

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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“…Singh et al, 2008;Gupta et al, 2008;Nastos et al, 2010;Maghrabi et al, 2011;Samoli et al, 2011). Various aerosol types have distinct effects on the sign and magnitude of aerosol radiative forcing (Satheesh and Krishnamoorthy, 2005), while the presence of UV-absorbing dust aerosols over highly-reflected desert surfaces may change the sign of the forcing from negative to positive (Hatzianastassiou et al, 2005;Patadia et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-temporal variability of dust aerosols over the Sistan region in Iran based on satellite observations

et al. 2013

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Satellite remote sensing provides important observational constraints for monitoring dust life cycle and improving the understanding of its effects on local to global scales. The present work analyses the dust-aerosol patterns over the arid environment of the Sistan region-in southeastern Iran, by means of multiple satellite platforms aiming to reveal the spatiotemporal distribution and trends. The dataset includes records of Aerosol Index (AI) from Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and 6-year AI records from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard Aura. Moreover, the aerosol optical depth (AOD) is analyzed through 11-year records from Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer (MISR) aboard Terra (2000Terra ( -2010 and from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard Terra (2000Terra ( -2007 and Aqua (2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011). The main focus is to determine similarities and differences in dust variability over southwest Asia, in general, and the Sistan region, in particular. The results show a marked seasonal cycle with high aerosol loading during summer and lower in winter, while MISR, MODIS and TOMS/OMI observations agree in both terms of monthly and seasonally mean spatial and temporal patterns. The higher aerosol concentrations during summer are interpreted as a result of the combined effect of the seasonal drying of the Hamoun lakes and the strong northerly Levar winds favoring dust erosion from the alluvial deposits in Sistan . After prolonged drought period, the dust-aerosol load over the area has increased in the beginning of the 2000s and decreased after 2004, 2 thereby leading to an overall declining trend during the last decade. Such a trend is absent during the winter period when dust emission over the region is minimal.

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“…However, this region has received little attention so far; it is lacking field campaigns and has few in situ observations. Some of the studies conducted for the Arabian Peninsula include dust storm trajectories analysis , impact of the March 2009 dust storm (Maghrabi et al, 2011) and assessment of the remotely sensed and groundbased aerosol optical depth (AOD, τ ) measurements consistency (Yu et al, 2013). Osborne et al (2011), Slingo et al (2006) and Otto et al (2007) have considered diurnal effects of dust.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diurnal cycle of the dust instantaneous direct radiative forcing over the Arabian Peninsula

et al. 2015

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Abstract. In this study we attempted to better quantify radiative effects of dust over the Arabian Peninsula and their dependence on input parameters. For this purpose we have developed a stand-alone column radiation transport model coupled with the Mie, T-matrix and geometric optics calculations and driven by reanalysis meteorological fields and atmospheric composition. Numerical experiments were carried out for a wide range of aerosol optical depths, including extreme values developed during the dust storm on 18-20 March 2012. Comprehensive ground-based observations and satellite retrievals were used to estimate aerosol optical properties, validate calculations and carry out radiation closure. The broadband surface albedo, fluxes at the bottom and top of the atmosphere as well as instantaneous dust radiative forcing were estimated both from the model and observations. Diurnal cycle of the shortwave instantaneous dust direct radiative forcing was studied for a range of aerosol and surface characteristics representative of the Arabian Peninsula. Mechanisms and parameters responsible for diurnal variability of the radiative forcing were evaluated. We found that intrinsic variability of the surface albedo and its dependence on atmospheric conditions, along with anisotropic aerosol scattering, are mostly responsible for diurnal effects.

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Impact of the March 2009 dust event in Saudi Arabia on aerosol optical properties, meteorological parameters, sky temperature and emissivity

Cited by 86 publications

References 40 publications

Characterization and Elemental Composition of Atmospheric Aerosol Loads during Springtime Dust Storm in Western Saudi Arabia

Characterization and Elemental Composition of Atmospheric Aerosol Loads during Springtime Dust Storm in Western Saudi Arabia

Spatio-temporal variability of dust aerosols over the Sistan region in Iran based on satellite observations

Diurnal cycle of the dust instantaneous direct radiative forcing over the Arabian Peninsula

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