Atmospheric electric field measurements in the central United Arab Emirates

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keri Nicoll ◽  
R. Giles Harrison ◽  
Graeme Marlton ◽  
Martin Airey
Keyword(s):  
Electric Field ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Daily Variation ◽  
Sea Breeze ◽  
Abu Dhabi ◽  
Atmospheric Electric Field ◽  
Fair Weather ◽  
Al Ain ◽  
Dust Charging ◽  
Convection Dominated

<p>Measurements of the atmospheric electric field (or Potential Gradient, PG) in arid, desert regions are few in comparison to those in more wet/mid latitude regions, despite the fact that such measurements can provide important insights into dust charging processes. Dust charging is emerging as potentially important in sustaining the long range transport of particles, for which new charge and field data are essential. Here we present new PG data from an electric field mill at Al Ain international airport in the eastern part of the Abu Dhabi Emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  Measurements were made alongside a visibility sensor and ceilometer to provide information on the background meteorological conditions.  At Al Ain, the conditions are generally fair weather in mid-latitude terms (predominantly no clouds or precipitation), with very occasional fog or thunderstorms, but the PG still demonstrates considerable variability associated with local factors such as dust and aerosol content.  Throughout the data series, the PG is almost entirely positive, with the only negative values occurring during thunderstorms and violent dust storms.  The desert climate of the UAE lead to widespread uplift of dust on a regular basis, as evidenced by the generally low visibility measured at the airport (mean visibility = 9km).  The PG at Al Ain was found to be generally much larger than typical fair weather values at other sites, with a mean of 116 V/m, with 2 kV/m exceeded regularly.  The local influences on the PG at Al Ain are strongly apparent and the daily variation in PG was found to fall into two main categories: 1) convection dominated, 2) sea breeze dominated.   On the convection dominated days the PG followed the daily variation in temperature and wind speed closely, with very large maximum values of PG up to 4 kV/m in the mid afternoon.  The other regular daily feature in Al Ain PG was a sharp positive increase in PG up to several kV/m around 1800-1900 local time.  This feature is associated with the arrival of a sea breeze front, which originates more than 150 km away on the Abu Dhabi coastline.  The extremely large change in PG over a very short time scale (tens of minutes) is thought to be due to the action of dust pickup within the sea breeze front as it travels substantial distances over the flat arid landscape.  Overall, the electrical environment at Al Ain is found to be generally very highly charged and so the local effects (primarily from dust and aerosol) mask Global Electric Circuit influences in the surface data.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Atmospheric electric field in the Atlantic marine boundary layer: first results from the SAIL project

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Barbosa ◽  
Mauricio Camilo ◽  
Carlos Almeida ◽  
José Almeida ◽  
Guilherme Amaral ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Electric Field ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Cape Verde ◽  
The Other ◽  
Atmospheric Electric Field ◽  
Fair Weather ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
First Results

<p><span>The study of the electrical properties of the atmospheric marine boundary layer is important as the effect of natural radioactivity in driving near surface ionisation is significantly reduced over the ocean, and the concentration of aerosols is also typically lower than over continental areas, allowing a clearer examination of space-atmosphere interactions. Furthermore, cloud cover over the ocean is dominated by low-level clouds and most of the atmospheric charge lies near the earth surface, at low altitude cloud tops. </span></p><p><span>The relevance of electric field observations in the marine boundary layer is enhanced by the the fact that the electrical conductivity of the ocean air is clearly linked to global atmospheric pollution and aerosol content. The increase in aerosol pollution since the original observations made in the early 20th century by the survey ship Carnegie is a pressing and timely motivation for modern measurements of the atmospheric electric field in the marine boundary layer. Project SAIL (Space-Atmosphere-Ocean Interactions in the marine boundary Layer) addresses this challenge by means of an unique monitoring campaign on board the ship-rigged sailing ship NRP Sagres during its 2020 circumnavigation expedition. </span></p><p><span>The Portuguese Navy ship NRP Sagres departed from Lisbon on January 5th in a journey around the globe that will take 371 days. Two identical field mill sensors (CS110, Campbell Scientific) are installed </span><span>o</span><span>n the mizzen mast, one at a height of 22 m, and the other at a height of 5 meters. </span><span>A visibility sensor (SWS050, Biral) was also set-up on the same mast in order to have measurements of the extinction coefficient of the atmosphere and assess fair-weather conditions.</span><span> Further observations include gamma radiation measured with a NaI(Tl) scintillator from 475 keV to 3 MeV, cosmic radiation up to 17 MeV, and atmospheric ionisation from a cluster ion counter (Airel). The</span><span> 1 Hz measurements of the atmospheric electric field</span><span> and from all the other sensors</span><span> are </span><span>linked to the same rigorous temporal reference frame and precise positioning through kinematic GNSS observations. </span></p><p><span>Here the first results of the SAIL project will be presented, focusing on fair-weather electric field over the Atlantic. The observations obtained in the first three sections of the circumnavigation journey, including Lisbon (Portugal) - Tenerife (Spain), from 5 to 10 January, Tenerife - Praia (Cape Verde) from 13 to 19 January, and across the Atlantic from Cape Verde to Rio de Janeiro (Brasil), from January 22nd to February 14th, will be presented and discussed.</span></p>

A Fog Climatology at Abu Dhabi International Airport

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-236
Author(s):  
Michael Weston ◽  
Marouane Temimi ◽  
Roelof Burger ◽  
Stuart Piketh
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Inversion Layer ◽  
Arabian Gulf ◽  
Sea Breeze ◽  
Road Transport ◽  
Abu Dhabi ◽  
International Airport ◽  
Dense Fog ◽  
Nocturnal Inversion ◽  
Fog Days

AbstractFog has a significant effect on aviation and road transport networks around the world. The International Airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, experiences dense fog during winter months that affect operations at the airport. We describe the fog climatology at the airport using 36 years of aviation routine weather reports (METAR), an important long-term data source, and report on the number of fog days per year, the seasonal cycle, the diurnal cycle, and the duration of fog events. Fog days per year vary from 8 to 51, with a mean of ~23.91 days (standard deviation of 9.83). Events are most frequent from September until March, with December and January being the most active months. November, unexpectedly, has a low number of fog days, which appears to be due to a decrease in aerosol loading in the atmosphere. The most fog days experienced in one month is 13 (March 2004). Fog occurs any time from 1900 to 1100 local time, and the frequency increases as night progresses, peaking around sunrise. Fog events most frequently last 1 h or less. Events of 9 h or more were recorded in January and December, with the longest event lasting 16 h. Events are strongly dependent on the land–sea breeze and seldom form when the wind is blowing from the Arabian Gulf. The thickness of the nocturnal inversion layer increases up to about 500 m AGL on fog days as compared with 273 m AGL on clear-sky days. This study is the first to use the 36-yr dataset to characterize fog climatology at Abu Dhabi Airport.

scholarly journals Climate change in the UAE: Modeling air temperature using ARIMA and STI across four bio-climatic zones

F1000Research ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 973
Author(s):  
Taoufik Saleh Ksiksi ◽  
Latifa Saeed Al-Blooshi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Moving Average ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Abu Dhabi ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽  
Climatic Regions ◽  
Box Plots ◽  
Al Ain ◽  
The Impact

Background: Standardizing climate-related indices and models across spatial and temporal scales presents a challenge. Especially when predicting climatic conditions in the era of climate change. The present work aims to assess the use of ARIMA (Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average) modeling approach coupled with STI (Standardized Temperature Index) to predict temperature anomalies across four bio-climatic regions within the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Methods: We used monthly temperature data from NOAA Land-Based Station Data for Abu Dhabi, Al-Ain, Dubai and Sharjah. ARIMA modeling and STI assessment of climatic events were used to predict and study the dynamics of climate of the four zones. The use of such forecasting powers was intended for an ultimate aim to study the impact of climate change on land use and land cover changes. Results: Data were not auto-correlated as shown by the Box-Ljung test. Additionally, the box-plots showed that Abu Dhabi had the highest median temperature. The ARIMA forecasting suggested that Dubai is predicted to have increasing trend of average temperatures until 2030. "Extremely hot" events were highest for Al-Ain (i.e. 9), followed by Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. Dubai had the highest occurrences of "Moderately hot" events, when compared to all other studied zones. Further, events classified as "very cold" were in the order of 20, 10, and 8, for Dubai, Sharjah, and for each of Abu Dhabi and Al-Ain, respectively. Conclusions: The temperature is predicted to increase in Dubai and Sharjah, with each representing a different bio-climatic zone. This was also reflected in the STI assessment of the historical temperature.  "Moderately hot" and "very cold" events for Dubai were the highest as compared to the other studied zones in the UAE. It is therefore believed that ARIMA, coupled with STI, may be a valid approach to forecast temperature and analyse extreme events.

Social Networking

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Zoheir Ezziane
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Management Information System ◽  
Abu Dhabi ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Al Ain ◽  
Distribution Company ◽  
Wholly Owned Subsidiary ◽  
Customer Services

The aim of this chapter is to illustrate how social networking could be used as a tool to empower people and organizations to get connected and share similar ideas and endeavors. It demonstrates the benefits when organizations employ social networking as an e-service tool to engage both consumers and businesses alike. In this chapter, a special focus is attributed to Al Ain Distribution Company (AADC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). AADC has implemented novel e-services for the purpose of improving customer services and incorporate social networking within its existing management information system (MIS). This work has been instrumental in not only showing advantages of using social networking at AADC but also helping the company to address various consumer needs and enhancing its e-services.

scholarly journals Application of a Nighttime Fog Detection Method Using SEVIRI Over an Arid Environment

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 2281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Weston ◽  
Marouane Temimi
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Arid Environment ◽  
Probability Of Detection ◽  
Abu Dhabi ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Soil Conditions ◽  
Infrared Imager ◽  
Al Ain ◽  
Meteorological Observations ◽  
Fog Dynamics

Fog degrades horizontal visibility causing significant adverse impacts on transport systems. The detection of fog from satellite data remains challenging especially in the presence of higher clouds, dust, mist, or unknown underlying soil conditions. Observations from Meteosat second generation Spinning-Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (MSG SEVIRI) over the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an arid area on the Arabian Peninsula, from 2016 to 2018 (two fog seasons) are used in this study. We implement an adaptive threshold-based technique using pseudo-emissivity values to detect nocturnal fog from SEVIRI. The method allows the threshold to vary spatially and temporally. Low clouds are detected with the analysis of the vertical temperature gradient. Fog classification was verified against four stations in the UAE, namely Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Al Ain, and Al Maktoum, where visibility and meteorological observations are available. The probability of detection (POD) (false alarm ratio (FAR)) was 0.81 (0.40), 0.83 (0.50), 0.83 (0.33), and 0.77 (0.44) at Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Al Ain, and Al Maktoum, respectively. In addition, the spatial frequency of fog is presented, which provides new insights into the fog dynamics in the region.

scholarly journals Small Variational Signals of Atmospheric Electric Field under Fair Weather

1997 ◽  
Vol 117 (10) ◽  
pp. 1450-1455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken'Ichi Narita ◽  
Nobunao Takeuchi ◽  
Noriyoshi Chubachi ◽  
Noriyasu Honma
Keyword(s):  
Electric Field ◽  
Atmospheric Electric Field ◽  
Fair Weather

Department of Tourism and Culture – Abu Dhabi: transforming the desert into a city

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Mariam Hamad Al Dhaheri ◽  
Syed Zamberi Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Management ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Abu Dhabi ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Eastern Region ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Al Ain ◽  
Tourism And Hospitality

Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available upon request. Learning outcomes The purpose of this paper is to enable tourism management and strategic management students to evaluate and analyze tourism activities in the United Arab Emirates by TCA. Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of developing tourism in rural areas in the United Arab Emirates and to build up proper strategies. They will be able to perform the organization’s competitive standing using Porter’s Five competitive forces and analyze its business strategies as well. They will be able to analyze the current status of the organization using SWOT analysis and to design alternative strategies for the company using TOWS analysis. Case overview/synopsis The Department of Tourism and Culture – Abu Dhabi, also known as the TCA, is a governmental tourism authority in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi established 14 years ago as part of an economy-diversifying strategy for the non-oil era. The TCA is responsible of creating tourism activities to generate new tourists in Abu Dhabi, which will increase the revenue of the authority and as well increase the gross domestic product of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) economy. Tourism activities have been focused on Abu Dhabi City as is it considered the capital city of the UAE. However, other cities are also part of this strategy, e.g. Al Ain City, which is located in the eastern region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and Al Dhafra City, which is located in the western region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, both of which lack the required infrastructure, population, and tourism activity, due in part at least to the fact that the TCA’s strategy plans have been focused on Abu Dhabi City. Sultan Al Mutawa Al Dhaheri (Al Dhaheri), the TCA’s Executive Director of Tourism, has been responsible for developing tourism in Al Ain City and Al Dhafra, but due to the current situation of the two cities regarding the low revenue growth (and the consequent lack of investors willing to invest) and no critical mass (i.e. a sufficient number of hotel rooms available), Al Dhaheri is facing a dilemma regarding achieving TCA strategy in Al Ain City and Al Dhafra City. Complexity academic level This case study will be useful for undergraduate and postgraduate level students majoring in Tourism and Hospitality Management, Business Administration and Strategic Management. Subject code CSS 12: Tourism and Hospitality.

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