Journal of Atmospheric and Solar–Terrestrial Physics 199 (2020) 105217

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Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics

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Assessment of particulate matter concentration and gaseous pollutants in

urban and rural regions over the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE
D.V. Phanikumar a, Ghouse Basha b, *, M. Venkat Ratnam b, Niranjan Kumar Kondapalli c, f, T.B.M.
J. Ouarda d, Kishore Pangaluru e
a
Department of Science and Technology, Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi, India
b
National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Department of Space, Gadanki, India
c
Space and Atmospheric Sciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, 380009, India
d
INRS-ETE, National Institute of Scientific Research, Quebec City (QC), G1K9A9, Canada
e
Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA
f
National Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Nodia, UP, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In order to understand the air quality and plausible sources of atmospheric pollutants over the Emirate of Abu
Pollutants Dhabi (EAD), a detailed analysis is performed by utilizing three years of simultaneous measurements of various
Particulate matter gaseous pollutants such as SO2, NO2, CO, and O3 along with PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations during the period
Emirate of Abu Dhabi
2011–2013. The diurnal variation of O3 and SO2 shows noontime maximum in urban and rural regions during all
Sources
seasons, while NO2 and CO show higher levels in the morning and evening. During winter, maximum (minimum)
O3 (NO2) is observed in the rural region and in contrast, the urban region depicts maximum in spring and
summer both during day and night. Large variability is observed during the day and night for all pollutants. The
PM2.5 concentration shows similar diurnal variation as in the case of CO and NO2, peaking during daytime in
winter and spring in the urban region, while the nighttime peak values are prominent irrespective of the season.
It is also to be noted that the minimum (maximum) PM10 values are observed in the urban (rural) regions during
daytime in all seasons except in winter. The frequency distribution of the hourly mean concentrations of the
primary pollutants in the urban and rural regions elucidates that the observed discrepancies in the background
concentration levels of different pollutants may be due to different atmospheric conditions. The observations also
reveal that the linear relationship between maximum ozone concentration and maximum temperature might not
be valid above 313 K. The present observations are discussed in the light of current understanding of the dis­
tribution of trace species and plausible sources over EAD region.

1. Introduction
The major sources of air pollution over the Emirate of Abu Dhabi
(EAD) are dust, sand storms, and greenhouse gas emissions as well as
industrial pollution. Moreover, urbanization transportation and indus­
trialization has degraded the quality of air pollution over EAD in the
recent years. Atmospheric pollutants that significantly influence EAD
are particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) whose major contribution
comes from dust storms (Kchih et al., 2015; Basha et al., 2015a, 2019).
The other pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide
(NO2), and carbon monoxide (CO) mainly originate from emissions of
power generation, household usage, vehicle exhaust, fuel combustion as
well as small and large-scale industries; These gaseous pollutants do lead
to ozone (O3) production (Katheeri et al., 2012; Ran et al., 2014).
Most previous efforts in understanding the chemical composition of
the pollutants have been made in Asia and the Western world (Ada­
mopoules et al 1996a, b, c; Guo et al., 2009; Lin et al., 2011; Ran et al.,
2014). These studies have shown an increase in O3 concentration and its
precursors emissions in Asia. Nevertheless, its levels seem to be either
constant or decreasing over the United States and Europe (Akimoto,
2003; Beig and Brasseur, 2006; Naja et al., 2003). Apart from these, very
few reports are available in the literature focusing on air pollutants over
the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region (Li et al., 2001; Lelieveld
et al., 2009; Katheeri et al., 2012). Li et al. (2001) concluded that
stratospheric O3 does not contribute much to the summertime O3
maximum over the Middle East. In continuation to this, Lelieveld et al.

* Corresponding author.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2020.105217
Received 10 April 2019; Received in revised form 4 February 2020; Accepted 5 February 2020
Available online 8 February 2020
1364-6826/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
D.V. Phanikumar et al.
(2009) extended their study to understand the surface O3 concentration
especially over the Persian Gulf and suggested that this region is highly
favorable for O3 air pollution and also argued that the O3 precursor
emissions levels are high over this region. Katheeri et al. (2012) studied
the air pollutants over Al Mirfa (24.12� N; 53.44� E), UAE during
2007–2009 and this study reveals that the average hourly values for
NO2, SO2, and 8 h average of CO were within the acceptable levels of
400, 300 and 30,000 μg/m3, respectively, whereas the levels of O3 as 8 h
average. On the other hand, the priorities of the Environmental Agency
Abu Dhabi (Environment Vision, Abu Dhabi, 2012) are to ensure a
sustainable way of reducing ambient air pollution, thereby increasing
air quality (Environmental Agency of Abu Dhabi report, 2012). Also, it is
well know that most of the pollutants are trapped in the boundary layer
(Basha and Ratnam, 2009; Ratnam and Basha, 2010; Basha et al., 2018).
In this context, continuous and simultaneous measurements of pollut­
ants (SO2, NO2, O3, CO, PM2.5, and PM10) over EAD during three years
(2011–2013) are utilized here to better understand their variability and
plausible sources for the observed discrepancies. Observations and data
analysis are described in detail in Section 2. The variations in gases and
particulate matter along with plausible sources are discussed in Section
3. Finally, summary and concluding remarks are presented in Section 4.
2. Materials and method
The Environmental Agency of Abu Dhabi monitors gaseous pollut­
ants, particulate matter and meteorology over EAD. A set of commercial
instruments from Environment SA Company are used to obtain the
Fig. 1. Map of Emirate of Abu Dhabi (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/globe.html). Urban sites are shown by red circles and rural ones by blue dots. The
colored scale refers to the terrain’s altitude.
2
Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 199 (2020) 105217
measurements of O3 (Model -O342M), SO2 (Model-AF22M), NO2
(Model-AC32M), CO (Model-CO12M) and PM2.5 and PM10 (Model-
MP101M). These instruments measure O3 based on UV attenuation, SO2
on fluorescence, NO2 on chemiluminisence and CO on NDIR technique.
The minimum detection limit (MDL) of O3, SO2, and NO2 is 1 ppbv,
while CO has an MDL of 50 ppbv; PM2.5 and PM10 have MDLs of 0.5 μg/
m3. Hourly-averaged values have been recorded throughout the obser­
vational period of January 2011–December 2013.
In order to understand the air pollution over any region, information
about the basic surface meteorological parameters are required.
Dispersion and dissipation of pollutants involve atmospheric mixing,
settling, and deposition, which are greatly affected by the degree of
atmospheric turbulence which, in turn, depends on local weather con­
ditions (e.g. temperature and wind speed). Hence, measurements of
parameters like temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and direc­
tion from the Automatic Weather Station (AWS), National Climate Data
Center, USA have been utilized during the observational period. The
wind rose diagrams are plotted using Origin software.
3. Study area
In order to give a comprehensive picture of EAD, we have grouped
similar observational locations by their characteristics and two main
regions are studied for their air pollution: Urban (Hamdan street, Kha­
dejah school and Khalifa school) and Rural (Bida Zayed, Gayathi school
and Liwa Oasis) sites as shown in Fig. 1 based on population density. The
northwesterly part of EAD is mostly “urban,” while the western part is
D.V. Phanikumar et al.
considered “rural” region covered mostly by desert. The location of
these sites is shown in Fig. 1 and their coordinates are given in Table 1.
The stations are divided into urban (red dots), and rural (blue dots)
regions. The main reason behind this distinction is to see the percentage
contribution of different source regions over EAD. However, all stations
considered in this study have low elevation.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Meteorological variables
In order to understand the meteorological conditions prevailing over
EAD in different seasons, we have plotted surface temperature, relative
humidity and wind speed obtained from the National Climate Data
Center (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-eb/datasets) over Abu Dhabi
International Airport (24.4419� N, 54.6501� E) as shown in Fig. 2 for
different seasons winter (December–February), spring (March–May),
summer (June–August) and fall (September–November). The tempera­
ture, relative humidity, and wind speed shows clear diurnal variation in
all the seasons. The magnitude of temperature variability is large during
spring and fall whereas it is low during winter. The maximum (mini­
mum) temperatures during winter are 26 � C (17 � C), spring 40 � C (28
�
C), and fall 40 � C (29 � C). Although variability is low in summer the
minimum temperature is 32 � C whereas maximum it reaches to 42 � C
around 13 LT (local time). During winter humidity reaches maximum of
about 73% followed by fall (60%), spring (55%), and summer (54%) at
night and minimum values of relative humidity are observed at 10 a.m.
The wind speed show clear diurnal observations in different seasons
with maximum wind speed of ~6.5–7 m/s at 13 LT in all the seasons.
Fig. 3 shows the monthly variation of wind direction in terms of per­
centage occurrence over EAD during 2011–2013. The wind direction is
divided into four quadrants namely 0o-90� , 90o-180� , 180o-270� , and
270o-360� . The most prevailing wind direction throughout the year is
from the northwestern (270o–360� ) sector that is also known as “Shamal
wind” in the Arabian Gulf region. This is implying that the Persian Gulf
region may be responsible for bringing moist air over EAD. Moreover,
during winter, spring, and fall, winds from the 90o-180� sector also
contribute to some extent (~25%) in bringing desert dust to this region.
Minor frequency of wind occurrence from other directions throughout
the year depicts contribution of local emission sources apart from major
contribution from long-range transport of dust from distant locations.
4.2. Diurnal and seasonal variation of surface pollutants
Fig. 4a-p show the diurnal variation of air pollutants (SO2, NO2, O3,
CO) during the period 2011–2013 over EAD for winter, spring, summer
and fall for urban and rural regions. As expected, O3 starts increasing
during daytime and decreases during nighttime in both urban and rural
regions confirming that the precursors in this region are leading to
daytime ozone production via photochemistry. Except during winter,
the daytime O3 peak is higher over the urban sites when compared with
the rural ones. The higher O3 peak observed during winter at the rural
sites may be associated regional mixing/downward transport of O3
which plays a vital role in transporting O3 from higher altitudes to lower
troposphere thus demonstrating the complexity in the estimation of O3
Table-1
Urban and rural sites over EAD used in this study.
Region Station Name Area Type Lat (N) Lon (E)
1 Abu Dhabi city Hamdan Street Urban 24.48893 54.36372
2 Abu Dhabi City Khadejah School Urban 24.48156 54.36933
3 Abu Dhabi city Khalifa School Urban 24.43009 54.40843
4 Western Region Bida Zayed Rural 23.65226 53.70389
5 Western Region Gayathi School Rural 23.83551 52.81033
6 Western Region Liwa Oasis Rural 23.09579 53.60641
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Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 199 (2020) 105217
as emphasized in a recent report. Another plausible reason could be the
extreme precipitation events that are high over the urban sites and low
in the rural regions, therefore O3 concentration reduces in the urban
sites due to high precipitation in urban sites.
The diurnal variation of SO2 shows a daytime maximum in all sea­
sons over the urban at different timings. However, the rural region
shows different pattern in all seasons with peaks in the evening hours
indicating that the source region could be different. The SO2 maximum
during winter is higher followed by that in spring, summer, and fall. The
higher values of SO2 in the urban region throughout the day and in all
seasons may be due to the increase in local (vehicular and industrial)
emissions in that region. The diurnal variation of NO2 and CO shows
morning and evening peaks with daytime minimum in all seasons (CO
observations are not available over the rural region). As expected, NO2
levels are greater over the urban region. The NO2 morning peak is higher
in winter than its evening counterpart, while in the case of CO, the
evening peak is greater. The NO2 variations are stronger in winter fol­
lowed by spring, fall, and summer. Large variability is observed from
season-to-season especially in spring and summer; this variability de­
pends upon different source and transport mechanisms dominant in
different seasons. The large variability observed during the day and
nighttime levels in all pollutants may be attributed to larger emissions
from heating in combination with temperature inversions which are
dominant during nighttime (Lin et al., 2011).
Monthly mean variations of O3, SO2, NO2, and CO in urban and rural
regions during period 2011–2013 are displayed in Fig. 5a–d. The solid
black lines represent the monthly variations at individual sites. It is
evident that maximum values of O3 are prominent in June in all regions
with varying magnitudes though. In general, minimum or very low
concentration of pollutants during the summer monsoon (June–August)
is observed. However, EAD experiences higher temperatures and
negligible precipitation implying non-wash out of pollutants and hence
buildup of concentration of the primary pollutants during summer. The
variability of SO2 is comparable in both urban and rural regions. The
meteorological pattern in winter over EAD region could have contrib­
uted for the accumulation of pollutants for the observed variation.
Higher values in summer can be attributed to non-washout of pollutants
because of negligible precipitation over this region (Basha et al., 2015b;
Chandran et al., 2015). A CO-tracer model study over the Indian region
showed that the wintertime higher CO levels are mainly due to
anthropogenic emission and inflow of CO from other regions (Kumar
et al., 2013).
4.3. Particulate matter
In order to understand the distribution of particulate matter over
EAD, we studied diurnal and monthly variations of PM2.5 and PM10
concentrations during the observational period as shown in Figs. 6 and
7. Fig. 6 shows the diurnal variation of PM2.5 and PM10 during four
seasons over the urban and rural regions. It is observed that PM2.5 is
showing diurnal variations somewhat similar to those of NO2 and CO,
while PM10 shows a little different diurnal variation. Moreover, PM2.5 p.
m.10 shows similar values in the urban region as compared to the rural
regions in all seasons during daytime except in summer. The nighttime
values are also high in all regions, probably due to heavy daytime traffic
in the urban region. Temporal and spatial discrepancies from urban to
rural sites can be interpreted by the local sources and favorable mete­
orological conditions over the study region. On the other hand, the
diurnal variation of the PM10 concentrations in the rural regions shows
higher values during daytime in all seasons except in winter. The pri­
mary source for the higher values of the PM10 concentration over this
region is due to the site ground morphology itself being a desert;
therefore, transport of dust from the adjacent desert as well as from
distant locations soon lead to higher values (Katheeri et al., 2012). Also,
the observed discrepancies can be explained by the favorable wind
conditions and probable transport of desert dust from other locations.
D.V. Phanikumar et al. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 199 (2020) 105217

Fig. 2. a-l: Mean seasonal diurnal variation of EAD air temperature, (a–d), relative humidity (e–h) and wind speed (i–l), observed over EAD for winter (first row),
spring (second row), summer (third row) and fall (fourth row) during the period January 2011–December 2013.

Fig. 3. Frequency of occurrence of wind direction (o) observed over EAD during January 2011–December 2013.

The urban region shows low values in all seasons indicating either less variation of PM2.5 and PM10 (Fig. 7) shows a maximum during the
contribution from desert dust to the urban air pollution or transport month of June followed by July and August and starts decreasing. The
mechanism dominates due to highly variable sea breeze. The monthly PM10 concentrations show significant difference between the rural and

4
D.V. Phanikumar et al. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 199 (2020) 105217

Fig. 4. a-p: Diurnal variation of O3 (a–d), SO2 (e–h), NO2 (i–l) and CO (m–p) observed in the four seasons averaged during January 2011–December 2013. Urban and
rural regions are shown in red and blue colors, respectively. The first row of the plots refers to winter, the second to spring, the third to summer and the fourth to fall.

urban regions during the months of March to end of August (Fig. 7b). In
addition, higher concentration of PM10 is observed over the rural than
the urban region (Fig. 7b).

4.4. Frequency distribution

Fig. 8 shows the frequency distribution of daily averaged O3, SO2,

NO2, CO, PM2.5, and PM10 over the urban (red circles) and rural (blue
triangles) during the observational period. The highest probability in the
frequency distribution curve provides an idea about the background
levels of that particular pollutant in a specific region (Giavis et al., 2009;
Lin et al., 2011). This kind of distribution is very important for under­
standing the overall morphology of any region. It is interesting to note
that the frequency distribution of each pollutant has a distinctive pattern
and a broad peak at higher concentrations depicting the variability of
these pollutants in urban and rural regions, respectively. The O3 distri­
bution curve shows the highest probability at lower concentrations
(30–40 ppbv) in both urban and rural regions and depicts relatively
broad and identical frequency distribution in both regions. The SO2
distribution shows similar frequency peak at a concentration <1.52
ppbv in both regions, but with higher probability in the rural one. On the
other hand, the frequency distribution of NO2 shows a lower peak at the
concentration of ~7.95 ppbv with highest probability in the rural region
than in urban region.. The frequency distribution of CO over the urban
region shows a dominant and broad peak at ~550 ppbv. PM2.5 and PM10
show similar distribution for both urban and rural regions. On the other
hand, the PM2.5 (PM10) distribution curve shows a broad (narrow) peak
at a concentration of ~40 μg/m3 (~200 μg/m3).

4.5. Variation of O3 concentration with temperature

In order to understand the atmospheric chemistry, which has an ef­

Fig. 5. Monthly mean variation of O3, SO2, NO2 and CO averaged during
January 2011–December 2013. Urban and rural regions are shown in red and
blue colors, respectively.
fect on the O3 production, we have plotted daily values of the maximum
O3 concentration with maximum temperature and maximum RH for all
four seasons in Fig. 9. Jacob et al. (1993) showed that O3 and temper­
ature do not have a direct relationship; however, indirect effects are
observed with the increase in solar radiation leading to an increase in
temperature that could favor chemical reactions rates and thereby

5
D.V. Phanikumar et al. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 199 (2020) 105217

Fig. 6. Diurnal variation of PM2.5 (a–d) and PM10 (e–h) concentrations observed during different seasons averaged during January 2011–December 2013. Urban
and Rural regions are shown in red and blue colors, respectively.

Fig. 7. Monthly mean variation of PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations averaged during January 2011–December 2013. Urban and rural regions are shown in red and
blue colors, respectively.

6
D.V. Phanikumar et al. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 199 (2020) 105217

Fig. 8. Number of concentration values of O3, SO2, NO2, CO, PM2.5 and PM10 for urban (red) and rural (blue) regions over the period 2011–2013.

Fig. 9. Dependency map of daily maximum ozone mixing ratio (ppbv) with daily maximum temperature (K) and relative humidity (%) during January
2011–December 2013 over EAD. The different colors of the symbols correspond to include of relative humidity depicted by the color scale.

increase O3 measurements. Apart from these, increase in the mixing studies have observed an increase in O3 concentration with increase in
layer height also contributes to O3 enhancement (Ojha et al., 2012). temperature following a linear relationship with a slope of 2–8 ppb K 1
Initially, lower temperatures (293–303 K) are associated with a (Steiner et al., 2010). Our observations from EAD show an increasing
decreasing trend in the O3 concentration. In addition to that, previous trend of O3 concentration with increasing in temperature with a slope of

7
D.V. Phanikumar et al.
~ 3–5 ppb K 1 in between 303 and 313 in K as evidenced from previous
reports (NRC, 1991; Steiner et al., 2010). It is also interesting to note
that the increase in O3 concentration with increase in temperature may
not be valid after 313 K. A decrease is noticed in O3 concentration with
increase in temperature during summer instead. This region provides a
very good opportunity to study the variation of O3 concentration in very
high temperatures (318–323 K) in summer because a non-wash out of
pollutants due to lack of rainfall occurs (Ouarda et al., 2014). It should
also be noted that we did not observe any specific relationship between
RH and O3 concentration. Thus, it is clear that the relationship between
O3 concentration and temperature is not straight forward; on the con­
trary it involves complex dynamical because it includes solar radiation,
chemical reactions, and meteorological conditions for understanding the
mixing/transport processer.
4.6. Regional transport and source regions of pollutants
In order to get a clear picture about the plausible sources of the
pollutants observed over EAD, we have plotted concentration rose dia­
grams of the pollutants O3, SO2, NO2, CO (Fig. 10a–d) and PM2.5 and
PM10 (Fig. 11a–d) for the four seasons. The pollutants are originating
from different sources during different seasons. In general, O3, SO2, NO2
shows dominances in northwesterly with different spatial distribution.
During winter, O3 originates completely from northwestern part
whereas in other seasons it originates western part (Fig. 10a-d). The SO2
Fig. 10. Average concentration rose diagrams of O3 (a–d), SO2 (e–h), NO2 (i–l), and CO (m–p) four seasons over EAD in the period 2011–2013. The color bar
represents concentration. Each row of plots corresponds to a specific season and each column to a specific pollutant.
8
Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 199 (2020) 105217
originates from northwesterly in all the seasons and mostly concentrated
due to local emissions. Similarly, NO2 also shows as that of SO2 expect
during summer which is transporting from west side. The CO originates
slightly different from other pollutants. During winter and spring CO
originates from northwesterly and south easterly part. Both PM2.5 and
PM10 represents different picture in their incoming source. During
winter, PM2.5 and PM10 originates mostly from southeasterly whereas
during spring it is from northwesterly part. The PM10 and PM2.5 depicts
same source of origin during fall. It is also interesting to note that higher
(lower) concentrations of the pollutants and particulate matter seem to
be originating from northwesterly (southwesterly) directions, also pro­
nounced in winter, and spring, though, with varying contribution per­
centages. On the other hand, summer and fall depict slightly contrasting
picture showing dominant northwesterly (generally called as “Shamal
wind”) wind direction with less contribution from local emission sour­
ces. It is also worth mentioning that higher concentrations of the pol­
lutants and particulate matter are emanating from the same source
direction irrespective of the season.
5. Summary and concluding remarks
1. In this study, the characteristics of O3 and its precursors with
special emphasis on particulate matter during the period 2011–2013
were studied over the EAD region. The observations were grouped into
two regions namely urban and rural, based on regional characteristics.
D.V. Phanikumar et al. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 199 (2020) 105217

Fig. 11. Average concentration rose diagrams of PM2.5 (a–d) and PM10 (e–h), four seasons over EAD in the period 2011–2013. The color bar represents concen­
tration. Each row of plots corresponds to a specific season and each column to a specific pollutant.

9
D.V. Phanikumar et al.
This study has provided an insight into the existing levels of air pollution
and their sources over EAD. Diurnal variation of O3 shows maximum in
the afternoon and minimum between 6LT and 9LT whereas NO2 shows
morning and evening peaks with a minimum at noon hours. Monthly
variations variation of O3 (NO2) show maximum (minimum) in June
(August). The diurnal variation of SO2 shows a daytime maximum in all
seasons in the urban region; however, the rural region shows different
peaking time depending on the seasons. SO2 is maximum in winter
followed by spring, summer, and fall. The diurnal pattern of CO over the
urban region shows an interesting picture of higher levels during day­
time (9 LT) then decreases sharply reaching minimum around 16 LT and
starts increasing again reaching a maximum at 21 LT. The monthly
variation of SO2 and CO shows a steady behavior throughout the year
with a marginal maximum in March–June. The O3 increases with in­
crease in temperature up to 313 K then O3 decreases with further in­
crease in temperature. The plausible reason for the observed
discrepancies could be a combination of dominant photochemical re­
actions and strong wind persisting during the summer season (Lelieveld
et al., 2009). PM2.5 is mainly influenced by local emissions (traffic and
other industrial activities) and shows a peak during daytime in winter
and spring in the urban region as compared to the rural one. The sources
for PM10 are believed to be from desert dust and sea spray; they there­
fore present a minimum (maximum) in the urban (rural) region during
daytime in fall and winter due to the prevailing meteorological condi­
tions. Monthly observations clearly show dominance of PM10 over the
rural region peaking in May–June possibly indicating that the desert
dust is the predominant source for the high particulate matter concen­
tration over this region. The frequency distribution curves unveil facts
based on the dominant peak (highest probability) and nature of peak
concentration in primary pollutants in the urban and rural regions. The
sources of these trace species are very complex and may be caused by
differing atmospheric conditions (see Fig- 8).
It is also interesting to observe that the values of Al Mirfa urban site
(Katheeri et al., 2012) are closely matching these of the rural region of
our study. Apart from the above reasons, the other contributing factors
that could be responsible for the observed pollutant levels include
locally generated (anthropogenic emission sources), long-range trans­
port (meteorological conditions), Stratosphere-Troposphere exchange
processes, lack of convective mixing and precipitation and finally con­
ditions favorable for photochemical reactions affecting concentration of
primary pollutants and thereby modifying the O3 concentration over this
region. In future, more coordinated and simultaneous efforts should be
made to further reduce the levels of primary gas pollutants thereby
limiting the O3 concentration and understanding the source regions of
the primary pollutants, mixing and advection processes with prevailing
meteorological conditions over the EAD region.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Environmental Agency of Abu
Dhabi for providing the concentration of pollutants, and meteorological
data during 2011–2013 reported in this study. The authors are indebted
to the Editor Professor Pancheva and two anonymous reviewers whose
comments helped considerably improve the quality of the paper.
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