Investigation of the relative fine and coarse mode aerosol loadings and properties in the Southern Arabian Gulf region

• We utilized 3 aerosol samplers over 2 months to collect ambient aerosols samples representative of the Arabian Gulf region.
• Dust is highly influential in the Arabian Gulf region, comprising 76% of the coarse mode and 38% of the PM2.5 aerosol mass.
• Anthropogenic aerosols are also significant, negatively impacting the coarse mode and PM2.5 air quality levels.
• The aerosol levels were classified as healthy only 4% of the time and reached unhealthy levels for 24% of the days sampled.

The aerosol chemistry environment of the Arabian Gulf region is extraordinarily complex, with high concentrations of dust aerosols from surrounding deserts mixed with anthropogenic aerosols originating from a large petrochemical industry and pockets of highly urbanized areas. Despite the high levels of aerosols experienced by this region, little research has been done to explore the chemical composition of both the anthropogenic and mineral dust portion of the aerosol burden. The intensive portion of the United Arab Emirates Unified Aerosol Experiment (UAE2), conducted during August and September 2004 was designed in part to resolve the aerosol chemistry through the use of multiple size-segregated aerosol samplers. The coarse mode mass (derived by subtracting the PM2.5 aerosol mass from the PM10 mass) is largely dust at 76% ± 7% of the total coarse mode mass, but is significantly impacted by anthropogenic pollution, primarily sulfate and nitrate. The PM2.5 aerosol mass also contains a large dust burden, at 38% ± 26%, but the anthropogenic component dominates. The total aerosol burden has significant impact not only on the atmosphere, but also the local population, as the air quality levels for both the PM10 and PM2.5 aerosol masses reached unhealthy levels for 24% of the days sampled.