Long-Term Changes in Aerosol Loading and Observed Impacts on Radiative Budget over the Middle-East

Atmospheric aerosols play essential roles in regional energy balance, hydrological cycle, and air quality, thus greatly influencing the global climate public health. Rapid economic expansion, industrialization, urbanization, demand have significantly enhanced anthropogenic emissions over Middle East (ME) that received utmost scientific attention. Therefore, we present temporal variability of atmospheric ME for a period 15 years (2005–2019). Here, long-term measurements from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Aqua, Cloud Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) onboard Cloud-Aerosol Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) Clouds Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) Aqua are analyzed order to understand spatio–temporal their impacts radiation budget ME. On average, significant increase aerosol optical depth (AOD) trend is observed by ~0.01 per year The peak loading was summer (March–September) followed winter (October–February). A similar CALIOP-derived extinct coefficients In addition, MODIS retrievals validated against AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET)’s ground-based sun photometers. Overall, AOD showed good agreement AERONET AOD, ~70% falling within expected error high correlation coefficient (R > 0.8). Furthermore, associated changes clear-sky Shortwave (SW) radiative flux indicates further increases surface cooling (~1.2 W m−2 year) warming (~1.8 year). results suggest impacted during 2005–2019. assessment also demonstrates potential synergetic use multi-platform system studies.