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Monitoring and predicting Saharan Desert dust events in the eastern Mediterranean

Under suitable synoptic conditions, dust from the north African desert can be mobilised and transported great distances away from the source region. The quantities of desert dust transported into the atmosphere during dust events are really impressive; D’Almeida (1 986) estimates that on a global scale, one billion tonnes of desert dust is transported into the atmosphere per year. Such dust events adversely affect a number of weather-sensitive human activities such as aircraft operations due to the low visibilities which the dust in suspension normally induces. Also, in prolonged situations, dust suspended in the air, when inhaled, can cause respiratory problems to a sensitive group among the population. To a certain extent, the above dust-related problems can be considered as rather localised in character, affecting the immediate vicinity of the source region. Longer-range transports were long considered as having a rather passive character. However, the role of atmospheric dust as a source of mineral nutrients for plants must not be underestimated. Also, recent findings have revealed that the atmospheric dust transport plays a very important ecological role. Hedin and Likens (1 996) argue that dust particles can neutralise acid rain. Combining directly with acidic gases or by dissolving into acidic cloud water droplets, dust particles neutralise precipitation; this is believed to lessen the effect of acid rain on forests. The above are but a few of the effects of desert dust, certainly justifying the current interest and enhanced efforts in understanding the physical mechanisms underlying the mobilisation, transport and deposition of dust, as well as the endeavour in predicting dust events and their evolution in space and time. Several research groups are currently engaged in the study of a wide spectrum of desert-dust-related issues. The present article outlines the spectrum of the available tools which are now available for monitoring and predicting dust events originating from the desert regions of north Africa and subsequently affecting the eastern Mediterranean region. All of these tools have been employed in a co-ordinated effort to understand, monitor and predict dust events taking place over the Mediterranean basin. Most of the operations described below were undertaken under the MEDUSE (the MEditerranean DUSt Experiment) project which was recently completed, and was funded by the European Union. In order to demonstrate the employment of the available tools in the study of dust events, an illustration is given for a particular casestudy regarding the significant dust event that