Decadal Impact Study of Saharan Dust Transport using Multi Sensor Measurements

Abstract

Dust monitoring is one of the most challenging issues in today’s aerosol remote sensing. Aerosol loading of dust predominantly in the arid regions is highly variable and thus poses challenges that are several magnitudes larger while compared to the monitoring of continental aerosols. This paper addresses the time varying aspects of the Saharan dust. A time series analysis from 2002-2013 of the Saharan dust region using multi-sensor measurements is done to capture the dust transport mechanisms that have been proven to have far reaching consequences in shaping the climatology of the Northern Atlantic region. Based on over decadal measurement datasets it was found that temporal and amount of dust transport were found to be a chief catalyst in the large number of storm systems (28) that occurred in 2005. Similarly, a time lag, slight change in spatial location, coupled with a reduction in the amount of dust transport had reduced the number of storm systems (11) that occurred in 2009. Relationship studies of the surface air temperatures and Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) over the study area showed a reduction in the correlation between the two geophysical parameters in 2005 compared to 2009. This means the large AOT values tended to slightly decrease the surface air temperatures. This also gave an idea of the location in terms of height of the dust to be in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (approximately between 2 km - 4 km above ground surface).