PMID- 37484343
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20230725
IS  - 2405-8440 (Print)
IS  - 2405-8440 (Electronic)
IS  - 2405-8440 (Linking)
VI  - 9
IP  - 6
DP  - 2023 Jun
TI  - Evaluation of MERRA-2 data for aerosols patterns over the Kingdom of Saudi 
      Arabia.
PG  - e17047
LID - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17047 [doi]
LID - e17047
AB  - Aerosol is one of the major climate-forcing parameters which affect the Kingdom 
      of Saudi Arabia in particular. The most relevant consideration that characterizes 
      the aerosol properties and distribution is the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD). In 
      this study Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications 
      (MERRA-2) AOD product from the year 1980-2021 is used to investigate aerosols 
      pattern over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The validation of the MERRA-2 AOD 
      product is made by using AOD data retrieved from Aerosol Robotic Network 
      (AERONET) stations located at Solar Village (SV) and at King Abdullah University 
      of Science and Technology (KAUST). Various statistical analyses are performed to 
      test the reliability of MERRA-2 data in the study region. The results of the 
      statistical analysis indicate that MERRA-2 is highly correlated with both AERONET 
      stations data. Thus, annual and seasonal aerosol climatology maps based on 41 
      years of MERRA-2 data are prepared and analyzed over the study region. The annual 
      and seasonal aerosol climatology analysis of MERRA-2 data shows high density of 
      AOD at southern and eastern regions while the low density emerges over the 
      western and northern regions of the country during the study period. The results 
      of the study are very encouraging, which increases our confidence level to use 
      historical MERRA-2 AOD product to improve the knowledge on aerosols distribution 
      over the region in future.
CI  - (c) 2023 The Authors.
FAU - Labban, Abdulhaleem H
AU  - Labban AH
AD  - Department of Meteorology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, King Abdulaziz 
      University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
AD  - Center of Excellence for Climate Change Research, King Abdulaziz University, 
      Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
FAU - Butt, Mohsin Jamil
AU  - Butt MJ
AD  - Department of Meteorology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, King Abdulaziz 
      University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20230607
PL  - England
TA  - Heliyon
JT  - Heliyon
JID - 101672560
PMC - PMC10361094
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - AERONET
OT  - AOD
OT  - MERRA-2
COIS- The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or 
      personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in 
      this paper.
EDAT- 2023/07/24 06:42
MHDA- 2023/07/24 06:43
PMCR- 2023/06/07
CRDT- 2023/07/24 04:41
PHST- 2023/05/01 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2023/06/06 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2023/06/06 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2023/07/24 06:43 [medline]
PHST- 2023/07/24 06:42 [pubmed]
PHST- 2023/07/24 04:41 [entrez]
PHST- 2023/06/07 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - S2405-8440(23)04255-X [pii]
AID - e17047 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17047 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Heliyon. 2023 Jun 7;9(6):e17047. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17047. eCollection 
      2023 Jun.