ABSTRACT

Recent reports and various satellite data show that the Arabian Gulf region is one of the largest confluences of aerosol types in the world. Emissions, smoke transported from the Indian subcontinent, and natural dust episodes result in a unique aerosol laboratory. To further complicate the intricate consortium of aerosols in this region, the Arabian Gulf also has an exceedingly complex meteorology which include variable sea surface temperatures, enormous latent heat fluxes, strong land sea gradients, and strong mesoscale circulations. These factors combined make the Arabian Gulf a challenge to our models and satellite sensors to carry out environmental monitoring. NASA, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Department of Water Resources Studies, and 20 other US and foreign research laboratories have embarked on a measurement campaign, Unified Aerosol Experiment * United Arab Emirates, (UAE2), to gain insight on the properties and concentrations of aerosols in the gulf region and understand how these aerosols might affect climate change. To accomplish this task, 15 Aerosol Robotic Network Sun Photometers (AERONET), the NRL Mobile Atmospheric Aerosol And Radiation Characterization (MAARCO), and the GSFC Surface-sensing Measurements for Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (SMART) will be deployed and utilized in the gulf, coast, and desert region of the UAE. Airborne in situ and remote sensors will underfly satellite overpasses to provide essential information to the remote sensing and meteorological modeling communities. The ultimate goals of the UAE2 campaign are to (1) evaluate and improve the suite of satellite aerosol and ocean products frequently used by the scientific community in this region of the world, (2) determine the fundamental microphysical, optical and transport properties of aerosol properties in this region, (3) understand how aerosol particles interact with the regional radiation budget in bright surfaced locations, (4) and to model and explain the complicated flow patterns in the costal regions of the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.