United Arab Emirates Unifed Aerosol Experiment

NASA and other scientists from around the world will meet in the Arabian Desert during summer 2004 to study tiny airborne particles called aerosols and their impact on climate change. Researchers from the United Arab Emirates Department of Water Resources Studies (DWRS) and others from 20 U.S., European and South African research laboratories will work to understand the complex processes controlling the areas climate.

Scientists using NASA satellites, computer models and ground stations will decipher the region's unique mixing bowl where complex atmospheric circulation blends desert dust, smoke and other aerosols. The experiment piggy backs on an ongoing project by DWRS, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and the South African Weather Service which studies aerosol and precipitation physics, specifically as it relates to convective cloud and precipitation development over the Oman Mountains.

The Arabian Desert contains a wide variety of aerosols in some of the highest concentrations observed in the world. Pollutants, smoke from the Indian sub-continent, and natural dust all affect this region. Extraordinary meteorological conditions, including variable sea-surface temperatures, intense land-sea wind and temperature gradients, and strong local circulations make environmental monitoring with traditional weather and air pollution models and satellite sensors quite challenging. In addition to improving the quality of satellite data, this research campaign will focus on the testing and calibration of ground-based remote sensing by comparison to in situ measurements of mineral dust and pollutant aerosols over bright land surfaces in close proximity to the Persian Gulf. Historically, such measurements have been exceedingly difficult for conventional satellite instruments. In situ, ground-based remote sensing, and satellite data will also be compared to the U.S. Navy's global and regional chemical transport models in real-time.

To complete their research, scientists will rely on 15 aerosol robotic network sun photometers, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's Mobile Atmospheric Aerosol and Radiation Characterization (MAARCO) laboratory, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Centers Surface-sensing Measurements for Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (SMART) instruments. The equipment will be utilized in the Persian 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.

This field mission is one of many research programs involving the Aerosol Network or AERONET a ground-based aerosol monitoring network and data archive supported by NASA and expanded by many non-NASA institutions. The networks most important hardware consists of identical automatic sun-sky scanning spectral radiometers owned by national agencies and universities. During this research project, the spatial variability in retrieved properties from these instruments will be compared to satellite data and measurements.

Data from AERONET provides globally distributed near real time observations of aerosol spectral optical depths, aerosol size distributions, and precipitable water in diverse aerosol regimes. The data undergo preliminary processing (real time data), reprocessing, and final calibration (about 6 months after data collection). NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center is responsible for quality assurance, archiving and distribution from the master archive and several identical global databases.

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 aerosols in the UAE.
3. Better understand how aerosol particles interact with the regional radiation budget in bright-surfaced locations.
4. Model and explain the complicated wind flow patterns in the coastal regions of the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.

Partners

NASA researchers will work in close collaboration with scientists from numerous government agencies, research laboratories, and universities in the United States and United Arab Emirates. The research team includes the UAE Department of Water Resources Studies, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Hawaii, and North Carolina State University.

When

August - September 2004

Where

The mission will be completed in the Persian Gulf region, including numerous coastal, inland and desert sites of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Additional information on the UAE2 campaign can be found at:

• http://uae2.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html
• http://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov
• http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil
• http://www.dwrs.gov.ae/
• http://smart-commit.gsfc.nasa.gov