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Merdji, Abou Bakr; Lu, Chunsong; Xu, Xiaofeng; Mhawish, Alaa
Atmospheric research, 05/2023, Volume: 286Journal Article
Desert dust and sand storms from the Sahara can sometimes be transported thousands of kilometers, causing social and economic damages throughout their path, deteriorating the air quality, and affecting human health. The seasonal climatology and transport pathways of dust aerosols are, therefore, essential to a deeper understanding of the impact of dust on the affected region. This study investigated the three-dimensional climatology of dust aerosol distribution and its transportation characteristics over the Sahara, Mediterranean, and Europe using multiple satellites and reanalysis data. The results showed a strong spatial variation of dust aerosols, with the highest loading over the Sahara Desert and a gradual latitudinal decrease toward the north with the lowest dust load over Europe. Temporally, higher dust activities were observed during summer and spring in terms of dust occurrence frequency and contribution to the total aerosol loading. Dust aerosols significantly increased over Central Sahara and decreased over Central Europe. Saharan dust was efficiently transported toward Europe during summer and spring, mainly at higher altitudes of 2–6 km. It could reach as north as the latitude of ∼42° N in the transect of 5° – 15° E in the layer 2–4 km during summer, while in winter, the occurrence of dust was at lower altitudes (< 2 km) in some areas in Europe, north of 45° N. The dust transport pathway toward Europe showed a long-standing dust layer mainly appearing over the Mediterranean from the near-surface up to 3 to 4 km during summer and spring, contributing to the meridional transport of dust. The dust layer characteristics and the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height above Europe showed the likelihood of dust intrusion into Europe's PBL during summer. This work also highlighted the main elements affecting dust distribution and transport toward Europe: wind, topography, and the PBL height. •Climatology of dust profile and optical depth from Sahara to Europe were presented.•Characteristics of the Saharan dust seasonal transport toward Europe were revealed.•A long-standing dust layer and its variations were shown over the study region.•Changes in dust physical features from Sahara to its surroundings were exhibited.
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