Evaluation of NMMB-MONARCH dust reanalysis within the DustClim ERA4CS project

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michail Mytilinaios ◽  
Lucia Mona ◽  
Francesca Barnaba ◽  
Sergio Ciamprone ◽  
Serena Trippetta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Size Distribution ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Extinction Coefficient ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Northern Africa ◽  
Dust Deposition ◽  
Dust Extinction ◽  
Dust Size Distribution

<p>An advanced dust reanalysis with high spatial (at 10km x 10km) and temporal resolution is produced in the framework of DustClim project (Dust Storms Assessment for the development of user-oriented Climate Services in Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe) [1], aiming to provide reliable information on dust storms current conditions and predictions, focusing on the dust impacts on various socio-economic sectors.</p><p>This regional reanalysis is based on the assimilation of dust-related satellite observations from MODIS instrument [2], in the Multiscale Online Nonhydrostatic Atmosphere Chemistry model (NMMB-MONARCH) [3], over the region of Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe. The reanalysis is now available for a seven-year period (2011-2016) providing the following dust products: Columnar and surface concentration, distributed in 8 dust particle size bins, with effective radius ranging from 0,15μm to 7,1μm, dust load, dry and wet dust deposition, dust optical depth (DOD) and coarse dust optical depth (radius>1μm) at 550nm and profiles of dust extinction coefficient at 550nm.</p><p>A thorough evaluation of the reanalysis is in progress to assess the quality and uncertainty of the dust simulations, using dust-filtered products, retrieved from different measurement techniques, both from in-situ and remote sensing observations. The datasets considered for the DustClim reanalysis evaluation, provide observations of variables that are included in the model simulations. The DOD is provided by AERONET network [4] and by IASI [5], POLDER [6], MISR [7] and MODIS space-borne sensors; Dust extinction profiles are provided by ACTRIS/EARLINET network [8] and CALIPSO/LIVAS dataset [9]; Dust PM10 surface concentrations derived from INDAAF/SDT [10] network and estimated from PM10 measurements [11] performed within EEA/EIONET [12] network; Dust deposition measurements collected by the INDAAF/SDT and the CARAGA/DEMO [13] networks; Dust size distribution from in situ observations (ground-based and airborne); And column-averaged dust size distribution at selected stations from the AERONET network.</p><p>In this work, we present the results of the model evaluation for the year 2012. The first evaluation results will focus on dust extinction coefficient profiles from EARLINET and LIVAS, on DOD using AERONET, MISR and MODIS datasets, and on dust PM10 concentration from INDAAF/SDT network. Moreover, a DOD climatology covering the whole reanalysis period (2011-2016) will be compared with the results obtained from AERONET network.</p><p> </p><p>References</p><p>[1] https://sds-was.aemet.es/projects-research/dustclim</p><p>[2] https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/</p><p>[3] Di Tomaso et al., <em>Geosci. Model Dev.</em>, <strong>10</strong>, 1107-1129, doi:10.5194/gmd-10-1107-2017., 2017.</p><p>[4] https://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/</p><p>[5] Cuesta et al., <em>J. Geophys. Res.</em>, <strong>120</strong>, 7099-7127, 2015.</p><p>[6] http://www.icare.univ-lille1.fr/parasol/overview/</p><p>[7] https://misr.jpl.nasa.gov/</p><p>[8] https://www.earlinet.org/</p><p>[9] Marinou et al., <em>Atmos. Chem. Phys.</em>, <strong>17</strong>, 5893–5919, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5893-2017, 2017.</p><p>[10] https://indaaf.obs-mip.fr/</p><p>[11] Barnaba et al., <em>Atmospheric environment</em>, <strong>161</strong>, 288-305, 2017.</p><p>[12] https://www.eionet.europa.eu/</p><p>[13] Laurent et al., <em>Atmos. Meas. Tech.</em>, <strong>8</strong>, 2801–2811, 2015.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Acknowledgement</p><p>DustClim project is part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), DLR (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR) with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462).</p>

scholarly journals A 3-D evaluation of the MACC reanalysis dust product over Europe, Northern Africa and Middle East using CALIOP/CALIPSO dust satellite observations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aristeidis K. Georgoulias ◽  
Athanasios Tsikerdekis ◽  
Vassilis Amiridis ◽  
Eleni Marinou ◽  
Angela Benedetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Extinction Coefficient ◽  
Northern Africa ◽  
Sea Salt ◽  
Profile Data ◽  
Dust Extinction ◽  
Dust Sources ◽  
Layer 4 ◽  
High Dust ◽  
Natural Aerosol

Abstract. The MACC reanalysis dust product is evaluated over Europe, Northern Africa and Middle East using the EARLINET-optimized CALIOP/CALIPSO pure dust satellite-based product LIVAS (2007–2012). MACC dust optical depth at 550 nm (DOD550) data are compared against LIVAS DOD532 observations. As only natural aerosol (dust and sea salt) profiles are available in MACC, here we focus on layers above 1 km a.s.l. to diminish the influence of sea salt particles that typically reside at low heights. So, MACC natural aerosol extinction coefficient profiles at 550 nm are compared against dust extinction coefficient profiles at 532 nm from LIVAS assuming that the MACC natural aerosol profile data can be similar to the dust profile data, especially over pure continental regions. It is shown that the reanalysis data are capable of capturing the major dust hot spots in the area as the MACC DOD550 patterns are close to the LIVAS DOD532 patterns throughout the year. MACC overestimates DOD for regions with low dust loadings and underestimates DOD for regions with high dust loadings where DOD exceeds ~ 0.3. The mean bias between the MACC and LIVAS DOD is 0.025 (~ 25 %) over the whole domain. Both MACC and LIVAS capture the summer and spring high dust loadings, especially over Northern Africa and Middle East, and exhibit similar monthly structures despite the biases. In this study, dust extinction coefficient patterns are reported at four layers (layer 1: 1200–3000 m a.s.l., layer 2: 3000–4800 m a.s.l., layer 3: 4800–6600 m a.s.l. and layer 4: 6600–8400 m a.s.l.). The MACC and LIVAS extinction coefficient patterns are similar over areas characterized by high dust loadings for the first 3 layers. Within layer 4, MACC overestimates extinction coefficients consistently throughout the year over the whole domain. MACC overestimates extinction coefficients compared to LIVAS over regions away from the major dust sources while over regions close to the dust sources (Sahara and Middle East) underestimates strongly only for heights below ~ 3–5 km a.s.l. depending on the period of the year. In general, it is shown that dust loadings appear over remote regions and at heights up to 9 km a.s.l. in MACC contrary to LIVAS. This could be due to the model performance and parameterizations of emissions and other processes, due to the assimilation of satellite aerosol measurements over dark surfaces only or due to a possible enhancement of aerosols by the MACC assimilation system.

scholarly journals A 3-D evaluation of the MACC reanalysis dust product over Europe, northern Africa and Middle East using CALIOP/CALIPSO dust satellite observations

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 8601-8620 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aristeidis K. Georgoulias ◽  
Athanasios Tsikerdekis ◽  
Vassilis Amiridis ◽  
Eleni Marinou ◽  
Angela Benedetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Extinction Coefficient ◽  
Northern Africa ◽  
Sea Salt ◽  
Profile Data ◽  
Dust Extinction ◽  
Dust Sources ◽  
Layer 4 ◽  
High Dust ◽  
Natural Aerosol

Abstract. The MACC reanalysis dust product is evaluated over Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East using the EARLINET-optimized CALIOP/CALIPSO pure dust satellite-based product LIVAS (2007–2012). MACC dust optical depth at 550 nm (DOD550) data are compared against LIVAS DOD532 observations. As only natural aerosol (dust and sea salt) profiles are available in MACC, here we focus on layers above 1 km a.s.l. to diminish the influence of sea salt particles that typically reside at low heights. So, MACC natural aerosol extinction coefficient profiles at 550 nm are compared against dust extinction coefficient profiles at 532 nm from LIVAS, assuming that the MACC natural aerosol profile data can be similar to the dust profile data, especially over pure continental regions. It is shown that the reanalysis data are capable of capturing the major dust hot spots in the area as the MACC DOD550 patterns are close to the LIVAS DOD532 patterns throughout the year. MACC overestimates DOD for regions with low dust loadings and underestimates DOD for regions with high dust loadings where DOD exceeds ∼ 0.3. The mean bias between the MACC and LIVAS DOD is 0.025 (∼ 25 %) over the whole domain. Both MACC and LIVAS capture the summer and spring high dust loadings, especially over northern Africa and the Middle East, and exhibit similar monthly structures despite the biases. In this study, dust extinction coefficient patterns are reported at four layers (layer 1: 1200–3000 m a.s.l., layer 2: 3000–4800 m a.s.l., layer 3: 4800–6600 m a.s.l. and layer 4: 6600–8400 m a.s.l.). The MACC and LIVAS extinction coefficient patterns are similar over areas characterized by high dust loadings for the first three layers. Within layer 4, MACC overestimates extinction coefficients consistently throughout the year over the whole domain. MACC overestimates extinction coefficients compared to LIVAS over regions away from the major dust sources while over regions close to the dust sources (the Sahara and Middle East) it underestimates strongly only for heights below ∼ 3–5 km a.s.l. depending on the period of the year. In general, it is shown that dust loadings appear over remote regions and at heights up to 9 km a.s.l. in MACC contrary to LIVAS. This could be due to the model performance and parameterizations of emissions and other processes, due to the assimilation of satellite aerosol measurements over dark surfaces only or due to a possible enhancement of aerosols by the MACC assimilation system.

Towards high-towards high-resolution dust reanalysis for Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enza Di Tomaso ◽  
Sara Basart ◽  
Jeronimo Escribano ◽  
Paul Ginoux ◽  
Oriol Jorba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Kalman Filter ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Data Assimilation ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Northern Africa ◽  
Combine Model ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Deep Blue ◽  
Satellite Retrievals ◽  
The Impact

<p>DustClim (Dust Storms Assessment for the development of user-oriented Climate Services in Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe) is a project of the European Research Area For Climate Services (ERA4CS). DustClim is aiming to provide reliable information on sand and dust storms for developing dust-related services for selected socio-economic sectors: air quality, aviation and solar energy.</p><p>This contribution will describe the work done within the DustClim project towards the production of a dust reanalysis over the domain of Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe at an unprecedented high spatial resolution (at 10km x 10km) using the state-of-art Multiscale Online Nonhydrostatic Atmosphere Chemistry model (MONARCH) and its data assimilation capability (Di Tomaso et al., 2017). An ensemble-based Kalman filter (namely the local ensemble transform Kalman filter – LETKF) has been utilized to optimally combine model simulations and satellite retrievals.</p><p>Dust ensemble forecasts are used to estimate flow-dependent forecast uncertainty, which is used by the data assimilation scheme to optimally combine model prior information with satellite retrievals. Satellite observations from MODIS Deep Blue with specific observational constraint for dust (Ginoux et al., 2012; Pu and Ginoux, 2016; Sayer et al., 2014) are considered for assimilation over land surfaces, including source regions. MONARCH ensemble has been generated by applying multi-parameters, multi-physics, multi-meteorological initial and boundary conditions perturbations. Sensitive parameters of the assimilation configuration like the balance between observational and background uncertainty, or the spatial location of errors have been carefully calibrated.</p><p>The dust reanalysis for the period 2011-2016 is being compared against independent dust-filtered observations from AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) show the benefit of the assimilation of dust-related MODIS Deep Blue products over areas not easily covered by other observational datasets. Particularly relevant is the improvement of the model skills over the Sahara.</p><p>References:<br>Di Tomaso, E., Schutgens, N. A. J., Jorba, O., and Pérez García-Pando, C. (2017): Assimilation of MODIS Dark Target and Deep Blue observations in the dust aerosol component of NMMB-MONARCH version 1.0, Geosci. Model Dev., 10, 1107-1129, doi:10.5194/gmd-10-1107-2017.<br>Ginoux, P., Prospero, J. M., Gill, T. E., Hsu, N. C. and Zhao, M. Global-Scale Attribution of Anthropogenic and Natural Dust Sources and Their Emission Rates Based on Modis Deep Blue Aerosol Products. Rev Geophys 50, doi:10.1029/2012rg000388 (2012).<br>Pu, B., and Ginoux, P. (2016). The impact of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation on springtime dust activity in Syria. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 16(21), 13431-13448.<br>Sayer, A. M., Munchak, L. A., Hsu, N. C., Levy, R. C., Bettenhausen, C., and Jeong, M.-J.: MODIS Collection 6 aerosol products: Comparison between Aqua’s e-Deep Blue, Dark Target, and “merged” data sets, and usage recommendations, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 119, 13965–13989, doi:10.1002/2014JD022453, 2014.</p><p>Acknowledgement<br>DustClim project is part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), DLR (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR) with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462). We acknowledge PRACE for awarding access to HPC resources through the eDUST and eFRAGMENT1 projects.</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals The impact of Pacific Decadal Oscillation on springtime dust activity in Syria

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing Pu ◽  
Paul Ginoux
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Pacific Decadal Oscillation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Arabian Peninsula ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Deep Blue ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The increasing trend of aerosol optical depth in the Middle East and a recent severe dust storm in Syria have raised questions as whether dust storms will increase and promoted investigations on the dust activities driven by the natural climate variability underlying the ongoing human perturbations such as the Syrian civil war. This study examined the influences of the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) on dust activities in Syria using an innovative dust optical depth (DOD) dataset derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Deep Blue aerosol products. A significantly negative correlation is found between the Syrian DOD and the PDO in spring from 2003–2015. High DOD in spring is associated with lower geopotential height over the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa, accompanied by near surface anomalous westerly winds over the Mediterranean basin and southerly winds over the eastern Arabian Peninsula. These large-scale patterns promote the formation of the cyclones over the Middle East to trigger dust storms and also facilitate the transport of dust from North Africa, Iraq, and Saudi Arabian to Syria, where the transported dust dominates the seasonal mean DOD in spring. A negative PDO not only creates circulation anomalies favorable to high DOD in Syria but also suppresses precipitation in dust source regions over the eastern and southern Arabian Peninsula and northeastern Africa. On the daily scale, in addition to the favorable large-scale condition associated with a negative PDO, enhanced atmospheric instability in Syria associated with increased precipitation in Turkey and northern Syria is also critical for the development of strong springtime dust storms in Syria.

scholarly journals Determining the infrared radiative effects of Saharan dust: a radiative transfer modelling study based on vertically resolved measurements at Lampedusa

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Meloni ◽  
Alcide di Sarra ◽  
Gérard Brogniez ◽  
Cyrielle Denjean ◽  
Lorenzo De Silvestri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Refractive Index ◽  
Optical Properties ◽  
Size Distribution ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Refractive Indices ◽  
Radiative Effects ◽  
Brightness Temperatures ◽  
Dust Size Distribution ◽  
Aerosol Properties

Abstract. Detailed atmospheric and aerosol properties, and radiation measurements were carried out in summer 2013 during the Aerosol Direct Radiative Impact on the regional climate in the MEDiterranean region (ADRIMED) campaign in the framework of the Chemistry-Aerosol Mediterranean Experiment (ChArMEx) experiment. This study focusses on the characterization of infrared (IR) optical properties and direct radiative effects of mineral dust, based on three vertical profiles of atmospheric and aerosol properties and IR broadband and narrowband radiation from airborne measurements, made in conjunction with radiosonde and ground-based observations at Lampedusa, in the central Mediterranean. Satellite IR spectra from IASI are also included in the analysis. The atmospheric and aerosol properties are used as input to a radiative transfer model, and various IR radiation parameters (upward and downward irradiance, nadir and zenith brightness temperature at different altitudes) are calculated and compared with observations. The model calculations are made for different sets of dust size distribution and refractive indices, derived from observations and from the literature. The main results of the analysis are that the IR dust radiative forcing is non negligible, and strongly depends on size distribution (SD) and refractive index (RI). When calculations are made using the in situ measured size distribution, it is possible to identify the refractive index that produces the best match with observed IR irradiances and brightness temperatures (BTs). The most appropriate refractive indices correspond to those determined from independent measurements of mineral dust aerosols from the source regions (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco) of dust transported over Lampedusa, suggesting that differences in the source properties should be taken into account. With the in situ size distribution and the most appropriate refractive index the estimated dust IR radiative forcing efficiency is +23.7 W m-2 at the surface, -7.9 W m-2 within the atmosphere, and +15.8 W m-2 at the top of the atmosphere. The use of column integrated dust SD from AERONET may also produce a good agreement with measured irradiances and BTs, but with significantly different values of the RI. This implies large differences, up to a factor of 2.5 at surface, in the estimated dust radiative forcing, and in the IR heating rate. This study shows that spectrally resolved measurements of brightness temperatures are important to better constrain the dust IR optical properties, and to obtain a reliable estimate of its radiative effects. Efforts should be directed at obtaining an improved description of the dust size distribution, its vertical distribution, and at including regionally-resolved optical properties.

scholarly journals The MACC-II 2007–2008 reanalysis: atmospheric dust evaluation and characterization over northern Africa and the Middle East

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 3991-4024 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Cuevas ◽  
C. Camino ◽  
A. Benedetti ◽  
S. Basart ◽  
E. Terradellas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Northern Africa ◽  
Vertical Profiles ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
Statistical Parameters ◽  
Surface Dust ◽  
Satellite Sensors ◽  
Good Agreement

Abstract. In the present work, atmospheric mineral dust from a MACC-II short reanalysis run for 2 years (2007–2008) has been evaluated over northern Africa and the Middle East using satellite aerosol products (from MISR, MODIS and OMI satellite sensors), ground-based AERONET data, in situ PM10 concentrations from AMMA, and extinction vertical profiles from two ground-based lidars and CALIOP satellite-based lidar. The MACC-II aerosol optical depth (AOD) spatial and temporal (seasonal and interannual) variability shows good agreement with those provided by satellite sensors. The capability of the model to reproduce the AOD, Ångström exponent (AE) and dust optical depth (DOD) from daily to seasonal time-scale is quantified over 26 AERONET stations located in eight geographically distinct regions by using statistical parameters. Overall DOD seasonal variation is fairly well simulated by MACC-II in all regions, although the correlation is significantly higher in dust transport regions than in dust source regions. The ability of MACC-II in reproducing dust vertical profiles has been assessed by comparing seasonal averaged extinction vertical profiles simulated by MACC-II under dust conditions with corresponding extinction profiles obtained with lidar instruments at M'Bour and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and with CALIOP. We find a good agreement in dust layers structures and averaged extinction vertical profiles between MACC-II, the lidars and CALIOP above the marine boundary layer from 1 to 6 km. Surface dust daily mean concentrations from MACC-II reanalysis has been evaluated with daily averaged PM10 at three monitoring stations of the Sahelian Dust Transect. MACC-II correctly reproduces daily to interannual surface dust concentration variability, although it underestimates daily and monthly means all year long, especially in winter and early spring (dry season). MACC-II reproduces well the dust variability recorded along the station transect which reflects the variability in dust emission by different Saharan sources, but fails in reproducing the sporadic and very strong dust events associated to mesoscale convective systems during the wet season.

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