Middle East measurements of concentration and size distribution of aerosol particles for coastal zones

Abstract

Recently, an extension of the Navy Aerosol Model (NAM) was proposed based on analysis of an extensive series of measurements at the Irish Atlantic Coast and at the French Mediterranean Coast. We confirm the relevance of that work for the distant eastern Meditteranean and extend several coefficients of that coastal model, proposed by Piazzola et al. for the Meditteranean Coast (a form of the Navy Aerosol Model), to midland Middle East coastal environments. This analysis is based on data collected at three different Middle East coastal areas: the Negev Desert (Eilat) Red Sea Coast, the Sea of Galilee (Tiberias) Coast, and the Mediterranean (Haifa) Coast. Aerosol size distributions are compared with those obtained through measurements carried out over the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean Coasts, and Mediterranean, and Baltic Seas Coasts. An analysis of these different results allows better understanding of the similarities and differences between different coastal lake, sea, and open ocean zones. It is shown that in the coastal regions in Israel, compared to open ocean and other sea zones, larger differences in aerosol particle concentration are observed. The aerosol particle concentrations and their dependences on wind speed for these coastal zones are analyzed and discussed. We propose to classify the aerosol distribution models to either: 1. a coastal model with marine aerosol domination; 2. a coastal model with continental aerosol domination (referred to as midland coast in this work); or 3. a coastal model with balanced marine and continental conditions.