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Land–atmosphere interactions govern the process of dust emission and transport. An accurate depiction of these physical processes within numerical weather prediction models allows for better estimating the spatial and temporal distribution of the dust burden and the characterisation of source and recipient areas. In the presented study, the ECMWF-IFS (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast – Integrated Forecasting System) outputs, produced with and without the assimilation of Aeolus quality-assured Rayleigh–clear and Mie–cloudy horizontal line-of-sight wind profiles, are used as initial or boundary conditions in the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) to simulate 2-month periods in the spring and autumn of 2020, focusing on a case study in October. The experiments have been performed over the broader eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME) region, which is frequently subjected to dust transport, as it encompasses some of the most active erodible dust sources. Aerosol- and dust-related model outputs (extinction coefficient, optical depth and concentrations) are qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated against ground- and satellite-based observations. Ground-based columnar and vertically resolved aerosol optical properties are acquired through AERONET sun photometers and PollyXT lidar, while near-surface concentrations are taken from EMEP. Satellite-derived vertical dust and columnar aerosol optical properties are acquired through LIVAS (LIdar climatology of Vertical Aerosol Structure) and MIDAS (ModIs Dust AeroSol), respectively. Overall, in cases of either high or low aerosol loadings, the model predictive skill is improved when WRF-Chem simulations are initialised with the meteorological fields of Aeolus wind profiles assimilated by the IFS. The improvement varies in space and time, with the most significant impact observed during the autumn months in the study region. Comparison with observation datasets saw a remarkable improvement in columnar aerosol optical depths, vertically resolved dust mass concentrations and near-surface particulate concentrations in the assimilated run against the control run. Reductions in model biases, either positive or negative, and an increase in the correlation between simulated and observed values was achieved for October 2020.

Extreme atmospheric and surface conditions over the vast Saharan desert result in the development of one of the deepest atmospheric boundary layers (Saharan Atmospheric Boundary Layer, SABL) on the planet. The land cover in the Sahara mainly consists of wide interchanging areas of stony and sandy desert intercepted by narrower bare rock formations. Significant changes in surface albedo, surface temperature, turbulence fluxes and wind speed have been observed with remote measurement platforms like aircraft and satellites. This was a motivation to simulate the convective boundary layer (CBL) that develops over the heterogeneous Saharan surface with a two-way coupled system of a large eddy simulation code (LES) and a land surface model (LSM). Initial and boundary conditions are provided by airborne observations and mesoscale atmospheric simulations. In order to investigate the effect of surface heterogeneity on the vertical structure of the SABL, a large scale (larger than 10 km) idealized warm surface anomaly is simulated and analyzed. A land strip with a low surface albedo produces almost doubled fluxes in density and stronger convergence near the ground than over the surrounding brighter surfaces. First and second order turbulence statistics reveal that strong thermals penetrate the inversion layer above the CBL producing a vigorous exchange between unstable and overlying stable air. Furthermore, a convective internal boundary layer (CIBL) is formed over the warm strip. The downwind development of the CIBL is studied and CBL depth equations from literature are revised. The average turbulent structure of the SABL reveals flow changes locally and downwind of the surface heterogeneity (strip), which can be more significant than the dispersive fluxes due to surface heterogeneity, and may have an important effect on processes such as dust uplift and its long range transport that influence weather and climate globally.

Three recent Saharan dust outbreaks during different seasons (4–6 days in winter of 2009, late autumn of 2010 and summer of 2011) are selected in order to study the chemical footprint and aging processes of dust intrusions over the Eastern Mediterranean (EM). The applied model system (PMCAMx, WRF and GEOS-CHEM) and methodology are found competent to reproduce dust production, long-range transport and chemical transformations over the EM, with the synergistic use of synoptic patterns analysis, optical depth retrievals, back-trajectories, surface and satellite aerosol measurements. The dust loads were high during the cold period events and much lighter during summertime, when transport was mainly in the free troposphere. In all cases, dust originated from the northwest and/or west Saharan desert and reached the EM from the west/southwest. Sensitivity runs underlie the effect of dust transport on the chemical constituents of aerosols over the EM and show a large impact on calcium (70–90% of maximum daily values 2–5 μg m−3), with its gradient at surface level being around −10% per 100 km along the dust pathway. For the cold period cases, this value can also be considered analogous to the dust dissipation ratio, because the plume is vertically extended down to the surface layers. Interestingly, the surface particulate nitrate concentrations over the EM are reversely affected by the approaching dust loads, exhibiting the highest values (up to 6 μg m−3) and the largest dust fraction (ca. 70%) during summertime. This is attributed to the enhanced nitric acid formation under high atmospheric temperature and insolation, its uptake onto the carbonate dust particles, and their effective accumulation, due to low deposition rates over the sea and scarce precipitation. Sulfate formation onto dust particles is found insignificant (rapid reaction with ammonia and/or sea-salt), while the influence of dust and sea-salt on sodium, when spatio-temporal averages are calculated, is approximately equal.