Temporal scaling study of particulate matter ([formula omitted]) and solar radiation influences on air temperature in the Caribbean basin using a 3D joint multifractal analysis

Abstract

In literature, many studies have highlighted the health impact of African dust. To our knowledge, few of them have analyzed the impact of mineral dust on the climate of the Caribbean basin in a multifractal way. In this study, the joint multifractal analysis was performed for three variables coexisting in the same geometric support in order to outline the influence of Particulate Matter (PM10) and Solar Radiation (SR) on air Temperature (TEMP) over a wider range of temporal scales and exponents order. To conduct this analysis, six years of daily time series recorded in Guadeloupe archipelago were used. A 3D joint multifractal analysis was conducted by considering both the strange attraction formalism and the method of moments. The scale dependence among the studied variables was highlighted and the capability of joint multifractal analysis to completely characterize the complex temporal geometry among these non linear natural phenomena was demonstrated. Saharan dust seasonality strongly influenced TEMP values across analyzed temporal scales. We found that multifractality degree is more significant for high dust season. In addition, the single multifractal spectrum always showed the monofractal pattern of TEMP while the fractal dimension differs according to dust seasonality and explanatory variable values, i.e. PM10 and SR. All these results have clearly highlighted the strong influence of PM10 concentration and SR intensity on TEMP value.