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DOI: 10.14738/aivp.92.9985
Publication Date: 25th April, 2021
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.92.9985
Overall Assessment of the Dynamicsof Dust Load Over the
South-East European Region
1Edmond Lukaj, 2Florian Mandija, 3Floran Vila
1,3Department of Physics, University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania
2Department of Physics, University of Shkodra, Shkoder, Albania
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a general view of the aerosol presence over the southeastern
region of Europe. Analyses are presented in terms of the aerosol optical depth and
fraction areas covered by dust plumes. The overall results show a relatively high
dust load over the region, compared to the northern European regions. Almost
similar results are obtained in the case of the other southern European regions, such
is Iberian and Apennine Peninsulas. However, the annual cycles also clarify the
differences on AOD maxima over this region in relation with other southern regions.
The southeastern region is more affected by the dust intrusions especially during
spring season whilst the south-western region is affected with more intensity during
the summer season.
Keywords: mineral dust, numerical models, southeast Europe.
1. INTRODUCTION
Mineral dust is one of the most abundant global natural aerosol sources. Major
mineral dust sources are considered the major deserts [1]. Global circulation
processes play an important role in the dust long range transport over the remote
regions [2-3].
The European continent is affected by several aerosol types. Extreme episodes of
aerosol load over the European continent and especially over the Mediterranean
region are often related to Saharan dust intrusions, which usually occur during the
spring-summer period [4-6]. Saharan air masses are also characterized by high
temperatures, thus intrusions of this type of air are often associated both with
temperature and aerosol load extremes in the Mediterranean region [7-9]. The
combination of elevated temperatures and poor air quality during such episodes
may lead to an increase of mortality rate and many human health problems. Also,
biomass burning coming from the east and urban/industrial emissions from the
central part of continent, forest fires coming from the eastern Europe, but also from
North America, marine aerosols, etc. contribute to the aerosol load over the
European Continent [10]. Dust, carbonaceous aerosols, and sulphate-based aerosols
have an important radiative impact of aerosols over this region [11]. The Southern
European region is one of the most important “Hot-Spots” in climate change
assessments [12].
South-eastern European region is frequently affected by the dust intrusions [13-16].
The major dust source in the global scale is Saharan Desert, emitting 60-200 million
tons per year. Although a major part of the Saharan mineral dust is exported
towards the northern Atlantic, this source also affects the southern European
regions [5, 17].
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European Journal of Applied Sciences, Volume 9 No. 2, April 2021
Services for Science and Education, United Kingdom
Atmospheric aerosols in general and the mineral dust in special case have several
important effects, based on their chemical, microphysical and optical properties.
They affect air quality and climate change.
This paper aims to give a general assessment of the dust presence over this region
based on the aerosol optical depth values predicted by the model BSC_DREAM8b.
2. METHODOLOGY
Nowadays there are used several methods for aerosol analyses such are; numerical
models, satellite observations, in-situ measurements etc. In the case of global and
regional studies, remote sensing is used to retrieve dust plume evolution over
different spatial and temporal scales [18-20].
These analyses are based on the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD at 550 nm) vales
retrieved from the BSC_DREAM numerical model
http://www.bsc.es/ESS/mineral_dust_database. AOD is commonly used as an
indicator of aerosol abundance over specific regions [21-23]. This parameter also
gives information on air quality because of its capability to assess aerosol load. Also,
the aerosol optical depth over the plume area (AODp), and percentage area covered
by the dust plume (PA).
The region under investigation is confined by the latitudes (37oN - 44oN) and
longitudes (19oE - 35oE), Fig. 1. Here 9-year model simulation (2006-2014) was
performed at 0.33°×0.33° spatial resolution and 1-h temporal resolution.
Figure 1. The shadowed area on the map presents the region under investigation.
This region encompasses the majority of the Balkan Peninsula and Anatolia.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
3.1 Regional Averaged AOD
Regional averaged, daily and monthly AOD_550 values during the entire period
2006-2014 are presented in the plot of the Fig. 2.
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Lukaj, E., Mandija, F., & Vila, F. (2021). Overall Assessment of the Dynamics of Dust Load Over the South-East
European Region. European Journal of Applied Sciences, 9(2). 204-211.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.92.9985
Figure 2. Daily and monthly averaged AOD_550 values during the entire period Mars
2006 – November 2014 over the entire region under investigation.
The plots of the Fig. 2 show a quasi-harmonic multi-peak variation of the mean
AOD_550 during the entire investigated period. The AOD maxima are achieved
during the summer seasons, while the minima during the winter seasons. However,
not all the summer seasons are affected by the same dust intrusions.
Average value of AOD_550 is about 0.026. The maximal value of the daily and
monthly AOD_550 reach up to 0.5 and 0.12, respectively. It must be mentioned that
these values are retrieved not only the dust covered areas, but the entire region also
including the clean areas.
Other indicators; PA and AODp.
Other important indicators of the dust load are used here. The area covered by the
dust plumes (PA) is expresses in terms of percentage of the total area of the region
under the investigation. It is a useful tool to analyse the spatial distribution of the
dust plumes. Also, the averaged aerosol optical depth over the areas covered by the
dust plumes (AODp) is used to express the intensity of the dust plumes.
Both these quantities PA and AODp reveal to be highly correlated with each other.
Their daily averaged values are correlated by a high correlation coefficient, 0.78.
Figure 3 shows the variation of the daily values of PA and AODp.
Figure 3. The correlation between regional average AODp and the percentage area
covered by the dust plume (PA); condition AOD_550>0.10.
Data presented in the Fig. 3 are taken only during the days with dust presence,
where AOD_550>0.10. Despite the high correlation coefficient between these two
indicators, also the regression line shows a clear relation between them. This is