{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T20:34:08Z","timestamp":1777581248693,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,11,15]],"date-time":"2018-11-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1542240000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>We analyze ten years (2008\u20132017) of ground-based observations of the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) in the atmosphere of Kuwait City, in Middle East. The measurements were conducted with a CIMEL sun-sky photometer, at various wavelengths. The daily average AOD at 500 nm (AOD500) is 0.45, while the mean \u00c5ngstr\u00f6m coefficient (AE), calculated from the pair of wavelengths 440 and 870 nm, is 0.61. The observed high AOD500 values (0.75\u20132.91), are due to regional sand and dust storm events, which are affecting Kuwait with a mean annual frequency of almost 20 days\/year. The long-term record analysis of AOD500 and AE, shows a downward and upward tendency respectively, something which could be attributed to the continuous expansion and industrialization of the main city of Kuwait, in combination with the simultaneous increase of soil moisture over the area. By utilizing back trajectories of air masses for up to 4 days, we assessed the influence of various regions to the aerosol load over Kuwait. The high aerosol loads during spring, are attributed to the dominance of coarse particles from Saudi Arabia (AOD500 0.56\u20130.74), a source area that contributes the 56% to the mean annual AOD500. Other dust sources affecting significantly Kuwait originated from the regions of Iraq and Iran with contribution of 21%.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10111807","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,11,15]],"date-time":"2018-11-15T11:32:47Z","timestamp":1542281567000},"page":"1807","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Long-Term Ground-Based Measurements of Aerosol Optical Depth over Kuwait City"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Panagiotis","family":"Kokkalis","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4486-237X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hala","family":"K. Al Jassar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Stavros","family":"Solomos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Application and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens, Penteli, 15236 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4221-992X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Panagiotis-Ioannis","family":"Raptis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, Penteli, 15236 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hamad","family":"Al Hendi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Vassilis","family":"Amiridis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Application and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens, Penteli, 15236 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alexandros","family":"Papayannis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laser Remote Sensing Laboratory, National Technical University of Athens, 157 80 Zografou, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8892-4539","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hussain","family":"Al Sarraf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, American University of Kuwait, P.O. Box 3323, Safat 13034, Kuwait"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marwan","family":"Al Dimashki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Environment Public Authority, P.O. Box 24395, Safat 13104, Kuwait"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,11,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"IPCC Climate Change (2013). The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"19237","DOI":"10.1029\/95JD03610","article-title":"Modeling of particle size distribution and its influence on the radiative properties of mineral dust aerosol","volume":"101","author":"Tegen","year":"1996","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. 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