Remote Sensing of Environment 169 (2015) 404–417

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Remote Sensing of Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rse

Investigation of aerosol optical, physical, and radiative characteristics of a

severe dust storm observed over UAE
Ghouse Basha a, D.V. Phanikumar a, K. Niranjan Kumar a, T.B.M.J. Ouarda a,b, P.R. Marpu a
a
Institute Center for Water and Environment (iWATER), Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 54224, Abu Dhabi, UAE
b
INRS-ETE, National Institute of Scientific Research, Quebec City, QC G1K9A9, Canada

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This work presents a detailed study of the dynamical processes triggering the occurrence of the two heavy dust
Received 14 April 2015 storms which occurred between 18 and 22 March 2012 over the Middle East. The dynamics of this event are re-
Received in revised form 23 August 2015 lated to the coupling of subtropical jet and polar jet over the Saudi Arabia region, resulting in massive dust storm
Accepted 31 August 2015
generation and dust transport through Rub’ al Khali and the Persian Gulf to the UAE region. AOD and PM10 values
Available online xxxx
showed a fourfold increase during the event reaching a maximum of 1.8 and 1653 μg/m3 respectively. The spatial
Keywords:
extent of the dust storm is evident from high values of MODIS AOD (~1.5) and OMI aerosol index (4.5) covering
Aerosols the entire Middle East. The total attenuated backscatter at 550 nm from CALLIPSO showed the vertical extent of
Dynamics dust up to 8 km. In addition, surface temperature showed a decrease of almost 15 °C during the event signifying
Dust storm the intensity of the dust storm. Aerosol radiative forcing estimates during the dust storm showed a cooling at the
UAE surface and warming in the atmosphere, with a maximum forcing value reaching up to ~− 210 Wm−2
(185 Wm−2). Hence, it is evident from the present study that the dust layer caused an additional warming of
~ 150 Wm−2 in the atmosphere over this region. The present event showcases the importance of dust storm
induced aerosol optical and physical processes, and associated atmospheric dynamics over UAE as well as
other affected regions.
© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Dust storms are very common phenomena in the Middle East owing
to the large scale desertification. They often disrupt the daily life by
reducing visibility and imposing severe environmental and health
risks. For instance, a fierce sandstorm lashed the Middle East on the
11 February 2015, forcing the closure of the Suez Canal in Egypt and
grounding flights in a number of airports in the region as reported by
the Japan News 2015 (http://www.the-japan-news.com/news/article/
0001927611). These dust storms also inject dust into the air, causing
air pollution, respiratory diseases, ecological disasters, and low visibility
affecting transportation and aviation. Dust storms are generally accom-
panied by strong winds causing desertification by wearing away the
soil-surface, causing huge economic loss by damaging the structure of
the top soil. Most importantly, the dust deposited on the ground can sig-
nificantly lower grain productivity by affecting photosynthesis process
(Farmer, 1993). Very few studies have focused on studying wind char-
acteristics in the Middle East (see Ouarda et al., 2015), and therefore
the involved dynamics related to dust storms are not properly
understood.
E-mail address: mdbasha@gmail.com (G. Basha).
The dominant sources of dust are desert, arid regions, terrains with
loose soil and uncultivated lands (Lim & Chun, 2006). Dust storms are
generated when strong surface wind lifts fine grained dust particles
into the air and strong turbulence or convection diffuses the dust to
cover large areas. The strong wind contributes to long range transport
of the dust thereby affecting distant regions as well (Shao, 2008 and ref-
erences therein). Windblown dust, particularly during the dust storm
has an enormous impact on the aerosol optical properties of the atmo-
sphere (Du et al., 2008; Xin, Wang, Li, & Wang, 2007; Zakey, Solmon,
& Giorgi, 2006). The airborne dust has both direct and indirect effects
on the climate system. The direct impact is caused by altering the Earth's
radiation budget through scattering and absorption of radiation
(Bangert et al., 2012; Harrison, Kohfeld, Roelandt, & Claquin, 2001;
Haywood & Boucher, 2000; Jayaraman, Song, Vetrivel, Shankar, &
Verkman, 2001; Satheesh & Ramanathan, 2000; Sokolik et al., 2001;
Tegen et al., 1997). The indirect effect is caused by affecting atmospheric
cloud nucleation and optical properties (Bangert et al., 2012; Levin,
Ganor, & Gladstein, 1996; Nakajima, Higurashi, Kawamoto, & Penner,
2001; Penner et al., 1998; Wurzler, Reisin, & Levin, 2000). These pro-
cesses modify the physical and optical properties of the dust, thereby
altering the dust radiative properties. Dust storms modify the atmo-
spheric dynamics in the source regions as well as having a large impact
on regional and global scales due to long-range transport.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2015.08.033
0034-4257/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
 G. Basha et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 169 (2015) 404–417
Different parts of the Middle East, especially the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) are affected by dust storms (horizontal visibility lies be-
tween 0 and 1 km) for almost 30% of the time during various seasons.
The frequency of occurrence of dust storms peaks during the pre-
monsoon season (March–May) when dust aerosols are transported by
southwesterly winds from the arid and semi-arid regions around the
Arabian Peninsula (Ackerman & Cox, 1982; Middleton, 1986; Aher,
Pawar, Gupta, & Devara, 2014; Prakash, Stenchikov, Kalenderski,
Osipov, & Bangalath, 2015; Saeed, Al-Dashti, & Spyron, 2014).
Several investigators in the past studied different aspects of desert
dust in the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula using ground based and
satellite observations to characterize the large-scale dust loading of
the atmosphere (e.g. Aher et al., 2014; Alharbi & Moied, 2005;
Badrinath et al., 2010; Miller et al., 2008; Notaro, Alkolibi, Fadda, &
Bakhrjy, 2013; Pease, Tchakerian, & Tindale, 1998; Prakash et al.,
2015; Saeed et al., 2014; Smirnov et al., 2002). However, very few stud-
ies to date have been carried out to understand the dynamics and the ef-
fect of these dust storms on meteorological parameters. During 18–22
March, 2012 a heavy dust storm occurred in the Arabian Peninsula,
largely affecting the UAE, Oman regions and the dust storm extended
for a long period (~ 4 days) (Aher et al., 2014; Prakash et al., 2015).
Prakash et al. (2015) simulated the March 2012 dust storm by using
the WRF-Chem model. The simulation results compared well with the
ground based and satellite borne observations such as AOD and related
parameters. Although previous studies focused on a number of aspects
of dust storms, an overall comprehensive analysis which deals with
aerosol physical and dynamical properties is limited. The present
study aims to investigate these aspects extensively by making use of
wide range of data sources such as surface measurements; aerosol ro-
botic network (AERONET) data; radiosonde observations; satellite
data from moderate resolution imaging spectrometer (MODIS), ozone
monitoring instrument (OMI) and the cloud-aerosol lidar and infrared
pathfinder satellite observation (CALIPSO)); Barcelona Dust Forecast
Center (BDFC) parameters; and ERA-Interim reanalysis data sets during
March, 2012. This analysis aims to provide an insight into the origin,
transport pathways and related atmospheric dynamics of the dust
storm.
2. Data base
2.1. Surface observations
Hourly observations of horizontal visibility (HV) (km), temperature
(°C), relative humidity (%), wind speed (m/s), wind direction (deg) and
weather phenomena (WP) are obtained from Abu Dhabi international
airport weather station. According to the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) criteria, the dust episodes are categorized into
dust events (HV lies between 1 to 5 km), dust storms (HV lies in
200 m to 1 km), and severe dust storms (HV 0-200 m), respectively
based on WP recorded during each hour of observation. The surface
observations utilized in the present study correspond to the period of
17–22 March 2012. In addition to that, radiosonde measurements are
also used during the same period available over same location twice a
day at 00 and 12 UTC.
2.2. AERONET data
The data used for the presented study were obtained from the
AERONET global network during March 2012 to study the variability
in AODs during the dust storm. The CIMEL sun-photometer used in
the AERONET station measures the irradiance every 15 min at 340,
380, 440, 500, 675, 870 and 1020 nm respectively, with a FWHM of
2 nm for the 340 nm channel, 4 nm for the 380 nm channel, and
10 nm for the other channels. The direct sun measurements take 8 s
to scan all wavelengths with a motor driven filter wheel positioning
each filter in front of the detector. To retrieve volume size distribution
405
from AERONET data an inversion algorithm is used in the size range
from 0.05 to 15 μm together with spectrally dependent complex
Refractive Index (RI), Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) and Asymmetry
parameters (ASY) from spectral sun and sky radiance data (Dubovik &
King, 2000). A series of papers describing the instrumentation, mea-
surements, accuracy, and cloud screening procedure have been present-
ed earlier (Eck et al., 1999; Holben et al., 1998, 2001; Smirnov, Holben,
Dubovik, Neil, & Eck, 2000). We have used level 2 cloud screened and
quality assured ground based AERONET data of the nearest possible
location which is at Mezaira (23.1°N; 53.8°E; 204 m msl), during
March, 2012 for the present study.
2.3. Satellite data sets
2.3.1. OMI
The OMI was launched in July 2004 on NASA's EOS Aura satellite.
OMI provides UV aerosol index information on a global scale at a daily
basis, passing over a certain location once or twice a day. A detailed de-
scription about the OMI instrument is given in Levelt et al. (2006). The
UV aerosol index is a residual quantity that indicates the departure of
the spectral dependence of the upwelling radiation from that of a pure
Rayleigh atmosphere bounded by a Lambertian surface. In this study,
the Aura/OMI level 3 daily global 1° × 1° gridded near-UV Aerosol data
product is utilized which is available from Giovanni web tool (http://
giovanni.gsfc.nasa.gov).
2.3.2. MODIS
MODIS instrument onboard the NASA EOS (Earth 5 Observing
System) Terra and Aqua satellites provides aerosol properties over
both land and ocean with a near-daily global coverage (Kaufman et al.,
1997; Salomonson, Barnes, Maymon, Montgomery, & Ostrow, 1989;
Tanré, Kaufman, Herman, & Mattoo, 1997). The standard AOD product
is retrieved using the dark-target approach at near-infrared wave-
lengths (2.1 and 3.8 μm) (Kaufman et al., 1997). Hence, this approach
provides information about the global distribution of aerosols but may
not be accurate over bright surfaces. The Deep Blue (DB) algorithm is
preferable to retrieve aerosol properties over deserts (bright surfaces)
because it employs two blue channels (0.412 and 0.470 μm), for
which surface reflectance's is relatively small compared to 0.650 μm
channel (Hsu, Tsay, King, & Herman, 2004). The uncertainties in AOD
obtained with DB algorithm are 25–30% (Hsu, Tsay, King, & Herman,
2006). Shi, Zhang, Reid, Hyer, and Hsu (2013) provided a complete de-
scription of DB aerosol products retrieval biases and related uncer-
tainties. The daily Level-3 aerosol product from Aqua (collection 5.1,
MYD08) is used for the present analysis.
2.3.3. CALIPSO
The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) is
the primary instrument on the CALIPSO satellite, launched on April 28,
2006 along with the cloud profiling radar system on the CloudSat satel-
lite (Winker et al., 2006). The CALIPSO payload consists of the CALIOP,
the Infrared (IR), and wide field camera. CALIOP is designed to acquire
vertical profiles of elastic backscatter at two wavelengths (532 nm and
1064 nm) from a near nadir-viewing geometry during both day and
night phases of the orbit. In addition to the total backscatter at the
two wavelengths, CALIOP also provides profiles of linear depolarization
at 532 nm. The depolarization measurements enable the discrimination
between ice and water clouds, and the identification of non-spherical
aerosol particles. Due to the non-availability of CALIPSO data during
16–29 March 2012, we only considered data from 20 to 22 March 2012.
2.4. BDFC
The Earth Sciences Department from the Barcelona Supercomputing
Center (BSC)—Centro Nacional de Supercomputacion (CNS) maintains a
dust forecast operational system with the updated version of the former
406 G. Basha et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 169 (2015) 404–417
Dust Regional Atmospheric Model (DREAM) called BSC-DREAM8b v2.0
(Basart, Pérez, Nickovic, Cuevas, & Baldasano, 2012; Nickovic,
Papadopoulos, Kakaliagou, & Kallos, 2001; Pérez, Nickovic, Baldasano
et al., 2006; Pérez, Nickovic, Pejanovic, Baldasano, & Özsoy, 2006). The
model predicts the windswept desert dust and was developed as a
pluggable component of the Eta/NCEP (National Centers for Environ-
mental Prediction) model. It resolves the Euler-type partial differential
non-linear equation for dust mass continuity and is fully inserted as
one of the governing prognosis equations in the atmospheric Eta/
NCEP atmospheric model equations. In this study, we make use of
hourly values of dust surface concentration (μg/m3), dust load
(μg/m2), PM10 (μg/m3), vertical dust concentration (μg/m3), and dust
extinction profile at 550 nm (1/m) during 17–22 March 2012.
2.5. ERA-interim reanalysis data
The European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast
(ECMWF) reanalysis product, ERA Interim reanalysis data is continu-
ously updated and covers the period from 1 January 1979 to the present
day (Dee, Källén, Simmons, & Haimberger, 2011; Simmons, Uppala, Dee,
& Kobayashi, 2006). The ERA-Interim project was launched in order to
improve key aspects of ERA-40, such as the representation of the hydro-
logical cycle, the quality of the stratospheric circulation, as well as
the handling of biases and changes in the observing system (Dee &
Uppala, 2009; Dee et al., 2011; Simmons et al., 2006; Uppala, Dee,
Kobayashi, & Simmons, 2008). This has been achieved by including
many model improvements, as the use of 4-D variation analysis, a re-
vised humidity analysis, the use of variation bias correction for satellite
data, and other improvements in data handling (Berrisford et al., 2009;
Dee et al., 2011). The primary analysis fields (temperature, zonal and
meridional wind, and Geopotential height) were obtained at 37 pres-
sure levels with spatial resolution of 1.5° × 1.5° latitude and longitude
belts during 00, 06, 12, and 18 UTC.
3. Study region
Fig. 1a shows the topography map of Middle East provided by Global
Land one-km Base elevation project (GLOBE Task Team et al., 1998).
Middle East is one of the most dust prone regions after northeast Africa
with a frequent occurrence of severe dust storms (Kutiel & Furman,
Fig. 1. (a) Orography map of Middle East from Global Land One 1 km Base elevation Project (GLOBE) obtained from http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/globe.html. Blue line indicates
the Rub' al Khali region. The box indicates the study region. (b) Map of orography of UAE, blue dot represents the location of Abu Dhabi International Airport where surface and upper air
(Radiosonde) measurements are available. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the online version of this chapter.)
2003). The area shown in the blue polygonis Rub' al Khali, which is the
largest sand desert in the world, comprising most of the southern part
of the Arabian Peninsula including parts of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman,
and Yemen. The box in Fig. 1a shows the region of interest in the current
study, i.e. UAE. UAE (24.4°N; 54.4°E) is located at the southeast of the
Arabian Peninsula bordered by Oman in the south, Saudi Arabia from
west and north, and the Persian Gulf from the east. This region comprises
mainly of sandy desert. Far to the south of the UAE, the Liwa Oasis is
aligned in an arc along the edge of the dunes, which rise above 90 m
(300 ft). In the east and northeast part of the UAE, Ra's al-Khaimah and
Fujairah are located separating an area of mountains that rise over
900 m (3000 ft) in height with isolated cultivation. The blue “star” in
Fig. 1b indicates the location of Abu Dhabi (observation site). The surface
temperature and precipitation variability over this region is studied by
several authors (Basha, Ouarda, & Marpu, 2015; Chandran, Basha, &
Ouarda, 2015; Ouarda et al., 2014).
4. Dust storm synopsis
The evolution of the dust storm that spread across the Arabian
Peninsula is shown in Fig. 2. The MODIS satellite image on 18 March
2012 captured the clear passage of dust storm from Saudi Arabia to
UAE through Rub' al Khali and Persian Gulf as depicted from Fig. 2b.
The dust blew generally eastward across Iraq, and curved towards the
south and southwest over Saudi Arabia and reached UAE and Oman
on 18 March 2012. The MODIS instrument clearly captured the dust
storm sweeping across Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Some source
points are visible in southern Afghanistan, and the dust blew in
southeast-northeast parts of Pakistan on 19 March 2012 as shown in
Fig. 2c and reported elsewhere (Alam, Trautmann, Blaschke, & Subhan,
2014). Then it migrated southward towards Oman and the northeastern
coastlines of the UAE. On 20 March 2012, the dust storm spread east-
wards towards the western parts of India passing through the Arabian
Sea (Fig. 2d). It should be noted that the heavy dust has covered the
northern Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait completely obscuring the
view of the ground below. The Persian Gulf, however, was partially vis-
ible through the blowing sand in the upper right quadrant, as is Qatar, at
the center of the right edge. The powerful dust storm blowing over the
Arabian Peninsula has disrupted the air traffic in UAE, Yemen, Saudi
Arabia and Oman to such an extent that schools are closed and
 G. Basha et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 169 (2015) 404–417
Fig. 2. a–f. True-color image of the dust storm was captured by MODIS imager from 17 to 22 March 2012. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is
referred to the web version of this article.)
hundreds of people were hospitalized with respiratory problems
(Kazmi & Vaidya, 2012). The visibility dropped to less than 500 m in
the northeastern emirates forcing the Fujairah airport to shut down
until conditions were improved.
The transportation of dust in the UAE region is analyzed through
Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT)
model (Rolph, 2010) during 17–18 March, 2012 at 12 UTC as shown
in Fig. 3. The trajectories are computed at three (500, 1500 and
2500 m) different levels for 72-h period back trajectories. The red,
green, and blue lines in the figure depict the trajectories of the
suspended particles at different altitudes up to 3-days before the
event that dispersed towards the Persian Gulf, and Iraq. The important
information that needs to be observed for this event is that the trajecto-
ry paths are completely from different directions during the 17 and 18
of March 2012 especially at 500 m and 1500 m altitudes indicating
that the source regions on these days could be different. During 17
March 2012, the air parcel seems to be originated from nearby Oman
and Arabian Sea, however, on 18 March the 500 m and 1500 m trajecto-
ries are impending from the interior of the Arabian Peninsula and East-
ern Europe from very long distances. Mostly, the sources of the dust in
the height level (1500 m) of the atmosphere are in the middle of the
Arabian Peninsula. The vertical cross section of trajectories during the
407
dust storm period reveals the descent of air parcel from higher to
lower altitudes particularly at 500 m.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Dynamics of dust storm
5.1.1. Synoptic conditions
In order to understand the conditions that favor the occurrence of
dust storm over the Arabian Peninsula, the spatial variation of sea
level pressure (SLP) from ERA interim reanalysis is shown in Fig. 4a–f
during 15–20 March 2012. In addition, the Geopotential Height (GPH)
and wind vectors at 500 hPa are overlaid on SLP in Fig. 4. A strong
east–west gradient in SLP (with magnitude ~20 hPa) is evident during
the evolution of a dust storm over the Middle East from 15 to 18
March 2012. This strong gradient accelerates the westerly winds, there-
by supporting the formation of dust storm spreading across the Arabian
Peninsula. On the 18 March 2012, the dust storm reached the UAE as
high pressure caused most of the dust, air to move into Saudi Arabia
and Yemen. Later, the east–west gradient diminishes over the Middle
East as the high-pressure extends farther east. One can also notice the
deep trough in SLP over the Arabian Peninsula shown in Fig. 4c & d.
408 G. Basha et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 169 (2015) 404–417
Fig. 3. (a) 72-h back trajectories derived from HYSPLIT model at Abu Dhabi international
Airport at three different altitude levels during 17 and 18 March 2012 and (b) vertical
cross section.
The low and high-pressure system traveled eastward remaining in close
proximity to each other establishing steep pressure gradients over
southeast Iran and southwest Pakistan that resulted in an unusually
large second dust storm in the region as shown in Fig. 4d.
One of the plausible reasons for the occurrence of dust storm is the
existence of trough in Geopotential Height (GPH) at 500-hPa level as
shown in Fig. 4. The GPH clearly shows a trough before the occurrence
of event between 20-30° E and extends deep up to 27°N. This westerly
Fig. 4. ECMFW Era-Interim mean surface level pressure (a–d) and 500 hPa geopotential height (color) and horizontal winds (wind vectors)(e–h) from 15 to 20 March 2012.
(For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
trough in the mid-troposphere, which is associated with one of the
western disturbances, extends southwards to north of the Arabian
Peninsula as depicted in Fig. 4b. The strong northwesterly wind brings
cold air flow. Next day, the trough moves eastward and its southern
part is now located over northern Iran, while dry air spreads over Iraq
and northwest Iran. Since the motion is horizontal and moves on to
the isentropic surface, the dust particles move from lower to higher al-
titudes from north of the Arabian Peninsula to the south (southeast).
However, this transformation depends on the wind speed, wind
direction, size of the particles and lack of precipitation.
5.1.2. Dynamics of dust storm
One of the plausible mechanism responsible for the generation of
unstable condition may be that the lower tropospheric wind magnitude
increases and couples with the mass and momentum adjustments
through transverse direct and indirect circulations accompanying
upper tropospheric jet streak propagation (Brill, Uccellini, Burkhart,
Warner, & Anthes, 1985; Danielsen, 1974; Means, 1952; Newton,
1967; Petterssen, 1956; Reiter, 1963).
In the northern hemisphere, two major jet streams are prominent,
the polar front jet stream (PFJ) and subtropical jet stream (STJ). These
jet streams significantly alter the circulation pattern through the
depth of the troposphere. STJ is located between 25°–30°N latitude
belts in all seasons except summer, whereas PFJ is found between
0–60°N latitude belts. The position and intensity of the STJ, featuring a
core height between 150 and 250 h Pa at the subtropical latitudes and
also found to be varying with season and strongest during winter.
The PFJ results from the steep temperature gradient where polar air
and tropical air interact. Note that the STJ is related to temperature
gradient confined to the upper troposphere. The synoptic pattern of
PFJ occurrence is further complicated in some sectors by the presence
of additional frontal zones, each associated with its own jet stream.
The PFJ is very irregular in its longitudinal location and commonly dis-
continuous, whereas the STJ is much more persistent. The altitude of
the PFJ fluctuates with the altitude of the tropopause. Since the stron-
gest thermal gradient between equator and pole is in winter, the inten-
sity of jet speed is generally maximum in winter. For instance, cut off
lows and major troughs often penetrate a long way towards equator
during winter; causing the PFJ to underlie the STJ virtually at the same
 G. Basha et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 169 (2015) 404–417
latitude. The tropopause folds associated with the PFJ may extend deep
into the troposphere downwards.
The interaction of PFJ with STJ leads to the severe instability condi-
tion, favoring the condition required for massive dust storms over the
Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia). Confluence of the PFJ and STJ cores re-
sults in favorable conditions for the development of extreme turbulence
particularly between the cores. This confluence (merging of the wind
flow) generally promotes upper-level convergence and subsidence.
Diffluence (spreading of the wind flow) of the PFJ and STJ cores often
enhances upper-level divergence and lifting, and favors the formation
of severe instability often located just downstream of the jet maximum.
In regions of confluence where STJ wind speed is large, considerable in-
trusion of stratospheric high momentum air often takes place deep in
the troposphere. Such a big transfer of momentum eventually leads to
high surface winds capable of triggering many of the massive dust
plumes. The confluence with air already moving at high speeds in strong
high gradients associated with the PFJ results in a broader and stronger
area jet maximum, a distinguishing feature associated with one of the
most severe categories of dust storms in Saudi Arabia. This mechanism
has been demonstrated in Fig. 5.
The spatial variability of zonal wind at 150 hPa is shown in Fig. 5
from 15 to 20 March 2012. The propagation of STJ and PFJ is clearly
seen in the figure from south to north. Clear separation between the
STJ and PJF is noticed on the 15–16 March 2012. On the 17 March
2012, the interaction of PJF with STJ is observed as depicted in Fig. 5c.
This leads to widening of STJ belt with strong winds compared to previ-
ous days. The wind speed is significantly high over the northern Saudi
Arabia and southern Iraq before the occurrence of dust storm with mag-
nitudes more than 60 m/s (Fig. 5a) causing the dust storm in eastern
Saudi Arabia. As the upper level, jet, propagating over Saudi Arabia on
16 March, 2012, the surface thermal low in the region underneath the
right front quadrant of the upper level jet became influenced by the con-
vergence aloft and was forced to react to the south. A similar feature is
observed in radiosonde wind speed measurements, where it reaches
to a maximum of about 100 m/s amid 10–12 km. Due to convergence,
the low-pressure system becomes intense, thus creating strong pres-
sure gradient as shown in Fig. 4b. Consequently, strong surface winds
which are linked in the part of mass adjustments throughout the tropo-
sphere which inturn are associated with the upper level jet, develops a
northeast trough-to-trough ridge flow pattern as shown in the Fig. 4e.
The surface thermals due to the upper level divergence in the right
Fig. 5. a–f. Zonal wind speed from ERA-interim reanalysis data at 150 hPa from 15 to 20 March 2012.
409
side of the jet progressed northwest and a significant decrease in pres-
sure gradient was observed. Due to this, the surface wind was strong
enough to trigger a dust storm over eastern Saudi Arabia. Both the
storms showed typical synoptic patterns consistent with the association
of upper level jet. Hence, this coupling might have contributed to gener-
ate the favorable environment for the formation of instability conditions
to produce massive dust storms over Saudi Arabia propagated through
Rub’ al Khali reaching the UAE region on 18 March 2012.
5.2. Dust storm impact on meteorological parameters
The impact of dust storms can be clearly noticed in the hourly sur-
face meteorological parameters (HV, PM10, temperature, relative hu-
midity, wind speed) as depicted in Fig. 6. The measurements were
recorded at Abu Dhabi International Airport at 12 UTC from 17 to 22
March 2012 are used in this study. HV was in the range of 6–7 km
range before the occurrence of dust storm. However, visibility showed
a sharp decrease from 4 UTC on 18 March, 2012 reaching a minimum
of ~700 m around 3UTC on 19 March, 2012. Moreover, another event
which occurred at 18 UTC on 19 March, 2012 decreased the visibility
to 700 m and persisted for almost 12 h. This event has persisted up to
18UTC of 21 March 2012. It should be noted that a clear temporal evo-
lution of the dust storm is evident from the visibility data. The PM10
(particulate matter of aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 μm) showed a maxi-
mum of about ~ 1500 (1600) μg/m3 during the two dust storms. The
evidence of the dust storm passage is found from the PM10 observations
as shown in Fig. 6b. During the event, higher PM10 concentrations are
suspended in air and previous studies showed that these higher concen-
trations could be harmful for health (Prospero, Ginoux, Torres,
Nicholson, & Gill, 2002; Rodriguez, Querol, Alastuey, Viana, & Mantilla,
2003). According to the WMO standards, the daily average concentra-
tion of more than 50 μg/m3 for more than 35 times per year is consid-
ered harmful, while PM10 annual average should not exceed 40 μg/m3.
However, the high values of PM10 during the dust storm lasted only
for a couple of days indicating an intense and fast process before the
dust particles settled down. The temperature and relative humidity
show differing patterns during the dust storm, which is expected as
illustrated in Fig. 6c. Before the storm, the temperature (~ 30 °C) and
RH (80%) were stable and normal. During the early hours of 18 March
2012, there was a dramatic change in weather conditions with the arriv-
al of dust plume. The temperature continued to decrease reaching a
410 G. Basha et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 169 (2015) 404–417
Fig. 6. Hourly observation of (a) horizontal visibility (km), (b) PM10 (b), (c) temperature
(°C) and relative humidity (%), (d) wind speed(m/s) from 17 12UTC −22 12UTC March
2012 at Abu Dhabi International Airport. Horizontal line in (a) represents the 1 km altitude
level showing dust storm. Vertical green dotted lines represent the starting and ending
lines of dust storm. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend,
the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
minimum value of about ~ 15 °C during the first storm. This is a sharp
drop considering the temperature was 30 °C, just 12 h before the
event). During the second storm, the reduction in temperature was
not observed prominently due to the dominance of the diurnal cycle.
The reduction in daytime temperature was caused by the passage of
Fig. 7. a–f. Vertical profiles of radiosonde temperature, mixing ratio, and wind speed at 00 and 12 UTC obtained over Abu Dhabi International airport from 16 to 22 March 2012.
cold air mass in this region, reducing the heating near the surface
resulting from shortwave energy. However, the variation in RH is due
to the cooler air temperatures, but is also likely due to the transport of
moisture to this region during the storm. It should be noted that the
patterns and minima of both visibility and temperature are exactly
matching during 17–19 March 2012 reconfirming the temporal and
spatial evolution of dust storms over this region. We also observed an
enormous increase of wind speed from 3 m/s to 11 m/s on 18 March
2012 at 12 UTC during the event. During the dust storm period, the
wind blows completely from the southeast direction. The direction
changes from southeast to northeast on 20 March 2012.
Fig. 7 shows the vertical profiles of temperature, mixing ratio, and
wind speed from radiosonde measurements at Abu Dhabi International
Airport during 16–21 March 2012 at 00 and 12 UTC, respectively. Before
the event, temperature and other parameters showed a normal trend.
However, as the background weather becomes unstable due to the
dust transport, the temperature showed a sharp decrease reaching a
minimum of ~10 °C below 1 km. Low-level inversions are the indicators
of unstable weather conditions and in this case, low-level temperature
inversions increased with increasing altitude during the dust storm. In
the lower troposphere, the temperature profiles indicate the heating
just before the event. The low-level inversions are clearly observed
below 1 km, however, at higher altitudes; the inversions with less mag-
nitude difference are noticed. The radiosonde profiles capture the
heating mechanism of troposphere during the event and the inversions
represent the intensity of the dust storm. It should be noted that the
temperature inversions are not common in the troposphere (Robinson
et al., 2012), but are sometimes observed during early morning hours
due to heating of the atmosphere by solar radiation. Dust particles dur-
ing the storm absorb the incident solar radiation resulting in increased
atmospheric temperature at higher altitudes. During the event, higher
values of mixing ratio are observed as compared to previous days. A
significant enhancement in magnitude of wind speed, particularly at
 G. Basha et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 169 (2015) 404–417
10–12 km (subtropical jet region) is observed during the event (40 m/s
before and 100 m/s during the event).
5.3. Aerosol optical properties
Fig. 8a-b shows the variation of AOD at three wavelengths 1640,
1020, and 500 nm and the Angstrom exponent (AE, b alpha N 440–
870 nm)) estimated from AERONET data during March 2012. It is clearly
evident from the figure that AOD variation showed two peaks: one dur-
ing 1–5 March and another one during 18–25 March 2012. However,
AOD variation during second half of the month reached a maximum of
~ 1.9 showing a sudden increment of aerosol optical depth during the
commencement of the dust storm. In general, there will be enhance-
ment in aerosol concentration and dominance of large size particles
during dust storms. Size distribution of aerosol dust particles were ana-
lyzed by estimating the Angstrom exponent based on a regression anal-
ysis between wavelength exponent α (an indicator of the dominant size
distribution) and turbidity coefficient β (aerosol loading in the atmo-
sphere). The formulation for estimating the angstrom exponent is
given in Ångström (1964) and the same procedure is followed for
computing the AE values in this study. Moreover, recent studies showed
frequency distribution of Angstrom exponent is also important in un-
derstanding the aerosol size distribution (More, Pradeep Kumar,
Gupta, Devara, & Aher, 2013; Pawar, Devara, More, Pradeep Kumar, &
Aher, 2012). In general, the AE close to 2 represents fine or accumula-
tion mode aerosols, and if the values are close to zero, the larger size
or coarse mode aerosols are dominant (Dumka et al., 2014). In our
case the Angstrom exponent values are nearly zero or negative, imply-
ing the dominance of coarse mode aerosols during the event. However,
after the dust storm (after 25 March) AE has recovered to the normal
Fig. 8. Temporal Variation of (a) Aerosol Optical Depth and (b) Angstrom Exponent during
March 2012 for three different wavelengths ranges 500 nm (blue), 1020 (black) nm and
1640 nm (magenta) respectively. Red dotted lines represent the starting and ending peri-
od of the dust storm over UAE region. (c) Spectral variation of Single Scattering Albedo
(SSA) for different days during 12–24 March 2012 over UAE region. (For interpretation
of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version
of this article.)
411
trend implying that the dominant coarse mode aerosols during the
event settled down quickly. Hence, high values of AOD (mostly desert
dust) and low values of the Angstrom exponent (coarse mode aerosols)
can collectively throw a light on the dominance of wind-driven long-
range transport of desert dust (Hegde, Pant, Naja, Dumka, & Sagar,
2007). Aher et al. (2014) analyzed the major summertime dust storm
event that occurred over Saudi Arabia, and spread to the UAE,
Pakistan, the Arabian Sea, and Western India (in particular over Alibag
and Pune), using satellite and groundbased measurements which indi-
cated a large increase (decrease) in AODs (Angstrom exponent), imply-
ing the dominance of coarse mode particles. Fig. 8c illustrates the
variation of Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) for four wavelengths 440,
675, 870 and 1020 nm from AERONET during 18–24 March, 2012 re-
spectively. SSA is defined as the ratio of the scattering to the total extinc-
tion efficiency (scattering + absorption). The SSA information can
provide an overview of the scattering and absorption properties of aero-
sols. The detailed procedure for estimation of SSA is given in previous
reports (Dubovik & King, 2000). Large values are observed during
dusty days and SSA values are typically varying between 0.85–0.94 at
500 nm during our observational period. In the present case, the maxi-
mum value observed during dust storm is 0.99 at 1020 nm. Also, the in-
crease in SSA with increasing λ is observed in both dusty and non-dusty
days implying that the scattering behavior and cross section of aerosol
particles is increasing as we go to higher wavelengths. Similar results
are also observed for other locations during the evolution of dust storms
(Pandithurai et al., 2008; Alam et al., 2014).
Fig. 9 shows the AERONET aerosol volume size distribution during
1–31 March 2012 grouped as dusty and non-dusty days respectively.
The volume size distribution generally gives an idea about the fine
mode (0.05–0.25 μm) and coarse mode (0.25–10 μm) aerosol contribu-
tion. The procedure for calculating volume size distribution is given for
example, in Dey, Tripathi, Singh, and Holben (2004). Being a desert re-
gion, the maximum contribution is from the coarse mode aerosols un-
like other sites where they have both fine mode and coarse mode
aerosols (Dey et al., 2004; Jethva, Satheesh, & Srinivasan, 2005; Singh,
Dey, Tripathi, Tare, & Holben, 2004). However, a two-fold increase has
been observed in coarse mode aerosol distribution during the dust
storm (18–24 March) as compared to non-dusty days, indicating the
contribution from mineral dust due to the storm. Moreover, the spec-
trum seems to be flatter on non-dusty days as compared to dusty
days. Moreover, the shape of the curve is different during different
non-dusty periods indicating dominance of different characteristics of
aerosols (radii, composition etc.) during that period. It should be
noted that, after the event (25–31 March 2012), the contribution of
fine mode aerosol is also found but not as significant as the coarse
mode aerosols, implying that the effect of dust storm has reduced and
most of the coarse mode aerosols transported during the event have set-
tled down quickly. However, the plausible reason for the contribution of
fine mode aerosols is that the lifetime of fine mode aerosols is more
compared to coarse mode aerosols.
In order to assess the type of absorbing aerosols during the dust
storm, we have plotted variation of dSSA440–1020 with Angstrom expo-
nent during March 2012 as shown in Fig. 10. It is evident from the figure
that dSSA440–1020 values are negative during the observational period
implying that the maximum contribution of aerosols is from the desert
dust (iron oxide at 440 nm) and minimum Black Carbon (BC) contribu-
tion over this region (Dumka et al., 2014). Moreover, it is interesting to
note that during the dust storm days (18–19 March 2012) dSSA440–1020
values are around − 0.1, which clearly shows the dominance of iron
oxide in desert dust aerosols. However, there are some reports in the
past where they argue that organic brown carbon cloud can also show
similar values as dust aerosols (Arola et al., 2011). It should be noted
that this method could be used as a tool to find out the dominant type
of aerosols as we have prior information about the dust storm. However,
dSSA440–1020 alone may not be enough to confirm certain type of aero-
sols, but can be complemented with the relation between AOD and AE
412 G. Basha et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 169 (2015) 404–417

Fig. 9. Variation of volume size distribution during different phases of dust storm during March 2012. Different colors and symbols represents before, during and after the dust storm
periods. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

and also advection patterns to identify different aerosol types over this
region as described in earlier papers (for eg. Pawar, Devara, & Aher,
2015).
5.4. Spatial variation
Satellite derived AOD and UV aerosol index are also used to investi-
gate the spatial extent of the dust storm over the Middle East. The spa-
tial distribution of MODIS AOD over land from the DB algorithm
(550 nm) for different days during 17–22 March 2012 is illustrated in
Fig. 11 (a–f). A clear enhancement in AOD over this region is evident
during dusty and non-dusty days from 18 to 22 March 2012 indicating
the spatial extent as well as the intensity of the event. UV aerosol
index data from OMI satellite also shows lower values before the
event as shown in Fig. 10g on 17 March 2012, whereas significant in-
crease in the UV aerosol index is noticed from, 18–22 March 2012 exact-
ly over this region (Fig. 11h–k). In addition, high values during 22 March
2012 are observed and the plausible reason could be due to consecutive
dust storms occurred over this region (Fig. 11i).
The BCS (or BSC) dust-forecasting model output data is utilized for
the present event to study the prominent features of dust storms over
this region. Fig. 12 shows the dust load (μg/m2), PM10 (μg/m3) and
dust surface concentration (μg/m3) from 17 to 22 March 2012 over
the Arabian Peninsula. Note that all the parameters showed significant
increase in magnitude during the event compared to non-dusty days
over the southern parts of the Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, and Yemen re-
gion. On 17 March 2012, Iraq and northern parts of the Persian Gulf
displayed higher values of dust load and lower values were observed
over Saudi Arabia and the UAE. However, during the event, dust load
has a larger spatial extent compared to previous day. The spatial varia-
tion in dust load varied dramatically as shown in Fig. 12a–f. The predict-
ed PM10 displays significantly higher values on the 18 and 19 March
2012 compared to other days. The reduction in PM10 values is clearly
observed after the event as shown in Fig. 12j–l. A similar pattern is
also observed from the forecasted surface dust concentration over this
region. The area accompanied by the dust surface concentration is larger
than the spatial extent of PM10 and dust load. The surface dust concen-
tration showed larger values from 18 to 20 March 2012 and decreased

Fig. 10. Variation of Difference of single scattering Albedo (dSSA = SSA(440 nm) -SSA (1020 nm) with Angstrom exponent before (01–16 March 2012), during (18–24 March 2012) and
after the dust storm (25–31 March 2012) periods are plotted. Different colors and symbols represent different phases of the dust storm. (For interpretation of the references to color in this
figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
 G. Basha et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 169 (2015) 404–417 413

Fig. 11. Spatial variation of aerosol optical depth derived through deep blue algorithm from MODIS satellite (a–f). UV aerosol index from OMI satellite (g–l) from 17 to 22 March 2012.

gradually thereafter. The basic features of dust storm are very well
captured by the model data. However, slight overestimation is observed
in dust load parameter even after the event. The spatial extent of these
parameters showed that dust plumes moves southeasterly from the
Mediterranean into the Arabian Peninsula carrying with it dust from
the northern parts of the Arabian Peninsula and southern Iraq apart
from Rub Al Khali desert in the south (Wilkerson, 1991).
5.5. Vertical variation
Fig. 13a shows the hourly dust extinction profile over the Abu Dhabi
region from 17 to 22 March 2012 from the BCS dust forecasting model.
The BCS dust model provides vertical distribution of dust extinction pro-
file from the surface to 16 km respectively. This model is an updated
version of BCS DREAM dust forecast model. Very high values are clearly

Fig. 12. Spatial variation of Dust load (a–f), PM10 (g–l) and surface dust concentration (m–r) obtained from hourly forecasted data from BCS model from 17 to 22 March 2012.
414 G. Basha et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 169 (2015) 404–417

Fig. 13. (a) Time-vertical cross-section of hourly forecasted dust extinction profile obtained from BCS model from 17 to 22 March 2012 over the Abu Dhabi location. NASA Cloud-Aerosol
Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations of their path (Top left corner) and vertical distribution of 532 nm total attenuated backscattering (km−1Sr−1) on (b) 20, and (c) 22
March 2012.

observed during the passage of a dust storm over this region during 03 model suggested by Ricchiazzi, Yang, Gautier, and Sowle (1998). ARF
UTC of 18 March to 12 UTC of 19 March 2012 from surface to 1.5 km is defined as the difference in the solar flux with and without aerosols
altitude. The vertical extent of dust increase is clearly observed from in the bottom and top of the atmosphere (BOA and TOA). Atmospheric
17 March 2012 onwards. The larger size particles are observed up to forcing (AF) is defined as the difference between the radiative forcings
5 km altitude from the surface. at BOA and TOA. AERONET inversion products provide a wide number
In order to understand the vertical distribution of dust more of parameters such as aerosol optical depth, single scattering albedo,
precisely, we make use of CALIPSO nighttime observations. The asymmetry factor etc. which are important for the estimation of radia-
CALIPSO satellite observes the dust aerosols beneath the thin clouds tive forcing. In this study, the single scattering albedo varied between
and in clear sky conditions (Winker et al., 2006; Liu et al., 2004). Fig. 0.85 and 0.93 and the asymmetry factor varied between 0.7 and 0.8
13b & c show the CALIPSO track (top right corner) along with the verti- for the period between pre-dust episode to dust episode. The Asymme-
cal distribution of 532 nm total attenuated backscattered measure- try parameter is a numerical representation of the phase function and
ments at nighttime over the study region during the 20 and 22 March gives the information on the distribution of scattered radiation
2012. From CALIPSO observations, the vertical structure of dust and (Dubovik & King, 2000). A high value of single scattering albedo is due
clouds can be accessed. The attenuated 532 nm backscatter signal to large scattering type aerosols and a high values of the asymmetry
reaches maximum values of 0.01 (km− Sr−1). It should be noted that factor is due to increase of forward scattering in the dust episode days.
the values less than 0.02 (km−1 Sr−1) are due to clouds. On 20 March
2012, the backscatter profiles show larger values extending to higher
altitudes particularly in the latitude range of 25–30°N. The CALIPSO
back scattered profile indicated a layer of thick dust extending from
the surface to an altitude of about 8 km (Fig. 13b). CALIPSO measure-
ments also reveal that an ascending thick plume of dust is observed
and thereafter-sharp increase is visible in the dust storm affected lati-
tudes at 22:49 UTC and show a decreasing trend after the event. Similar
features were observed on 22 March 2012 at 21:57 UTC, where the dust
storm moves towards higher latitudes (refer to Fig. 2). The large back-
scattering values are an indication of the thickness of dust layer.

5.6. Aerosol radiative forcing

In order to assess the radiative fluxes during the dust storm in the
wavelength band of 0.25–4.0 μm, aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) was Fig. 14. Aerosol radiative forcing during 17–24 March 2012 dust storm period over UAE
derived by using Santa Barbara DISORT Radiative Transfer (SBDART) region.
 G. Basha et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 169 (2015) 404–417
All input values were taken at 0.5 μm wavelength during daytime.
Surface albedo values of ~ 0.35 are used for the UAE which is widely
used and recently measured over this region for dust dominated regions
(Saeed et al., 2014).
Fig. 14 shows the ARF for a dust storm period during 17–24 March
2012 for radiative forcing at BOA and TOA, during March 2012. BOA
and TOA significantly increased during 18–24 March 2012 compared
to other days. However, a minor dust event during the initial days of
March also showed some enhancement in the forcing values. It is evi-
dent from the figure that BOA values suddenly decreased (cooling)
from −28.15 Wm−2 to −99.59 Wm−2 during 17–18 March 2012 and
further showed a cooling reaching a maximum of −210.12 Wm−2 on
20 March. Moreover, TOA was + 2.75 Wm−2 on 17 March and it has
turned negative (− 6.94 Wm−2) and reached − 25.84 Wm− 2 on 20
March 2012, implying that the outgoing radiation has increased because
of severe the dust storm. Subsequently, AF also showed similar increas-
ing trend, reaching maximum 184.27 Wm−2 on 20 March 2012. In
short, the effect of dust storm showed a fourfold increase in the forcing
starting from 18 March and then recovered to normal on 24 March
2012. Moreover, ARF values reported in the present study are in close
agreement previous studies (Alam et al., 2014; Markowicz et al., 2008;
Saeed et al., 2014). Earlier, Mallet et al. (2009) from African region has
observed that an effect on dust aerosols on surface forcing could reduce
the values to ~ − 137 Wm−2. Recently, Alam et al. (2014) during March
2012 dust storm over Pakistan showed that surface forcing reached as
low as ~ − 194 Wm−2 indicating cooling at the surface, whereas our
study showed that the values reached as low as − 210 Wm− 2 over
the UAE near the source region. In this context, it is also worth mention-
ing that earlier observations from Kuwait for 26 March 2003 dust storm
showed a surface cooling as high as −204 Wm−2 which is very close to
the present observations (Saeed et al., 2014).
6. Summary and concluding remarks
The Arabian Peninsula is one of the most dust prone regions around
the globe (Kutiel & Furman, 2003). Very few reports have concentrated
on morphological characteristics of the dust storms and associated
dynamics over this region; their impact on surface meteorological
parameters, aerosol, optical and radiative properties. In this context,
the present study aims to understand the morphology and triggering
mechanism of dust storms over the Middle East as well as UAE region.
We have analyzed a case of intense dust storm that occurred during
18–22 March 2012 and the associated dynamics in detail, by using
various sources of data ranging from ground based measurements,
satellite-derived parameters, modeling, and also reanalysis datasets.
During this dust storm period, the horizontal visibility/temperature re-
duced to 500 m/15 °C. The relative humidity/PM10 reached to maximum
of about 80%/1653 μg/m3 during the dust storm.
The results showed that the plausible reason for the occurrence of
dust storm over this region could be the passage of a low-pressure sys-
tem over Iran that carries cool air towards warmer region like eastern
Syria and Iraq. Due to high-pressure zone formation over Syria, a low-
pressure zone is created over northern parts of Iraq and thereby winds
accelerated rapidly towards Iraq causing intense dust storm covering
most of the regions of the Arabian Peninsula. The coupling of STJ and
PFJ have contributed to generate a favorable environment for the forma-
tion of instability conditions to produce massive dust storms over Saudi
Arabia, which propagated through Rub' al Khali and reached the UAE on
18 March 2012.
Moreover, AOD and PM10 values has shown a dramatic four-fold in-
crement during the event. This event is so intense that all the satellite
and reanalysis datasets also showed a tremendous increment in the pa-
rameters. The spatial variation of MODIS AOD, OMI AI, dust load, PM10,
and dust surface concentration from the BCS model showed large values
during the passage of the dust storm, particularly over the dust prone
region. The source region for dust transport over the UAE is from the
415
Rub'al Khali region. The back scattered signal shows the presence of
dust layers up to 8 km by using CALIPSO measurements.
Our observations could provide some insight into the aerosol dust
characteristics and nature of aerosols during dust storms over the UAE
and the Middle East. Radiative forcing estimates showed almost a four-
fold increase during the dusty days in comparison to non-dusty days.
The vertical profile of heating rates clearly showed an enhancement in
the heating rate at 3–4 km (atmospheric forcing ~ 150 Wm−2) which
is also consistent with the simultaneously launched radiosonde temper-
ature profiles.
With the analysis described above, the complete features of the dust
event could be understood. In short, the combination of different data
sets helped us better understand the characteristics and associated dy-
namics of the dust storm event. In addition, we also investigated the
seasonal variation of dust storms over the UAE by using long-term
data. The maximum number of dust storms are observed during the
winter months and are less frequent in summer. However, it should
be noted that a single case study cannot confirm the triggering mecha-
nism explained here. We need to consider long-term data sets of dust
storms and associated dynamical parameters for understanding the
general mechanism of dust storms while also studying multiple dust
storms in detail as discussed in this work for a single event.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the National climate data center,
Wyoming University for providing surface and upper air observations.
PM10 observations obtained from Environmental Agency, Abu Dhabi.
The CALIPSO data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research
Center Atmospheric Sciences Data Center. The MODIS AOD and OMI
UV AI data used in this study were acquired using the GESDISC Interac-
tive Online Visualization and Analysis Infrastructure as part of the
NASA's Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center.
The authors also gratefully acknowledge the NOAA Air Resources
Laboratory for the provision of the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion
model and/or READY website (http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready.html)
used in this study. Special thanks to the AERONET group for providing
their aerosol observations. The authors are grateful to the Editor
Dr. Chuanmin Hu and three anonymous reviewers whose comments
helped to considerably improve the quality of the paper.
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