Chapter 68
An Extreme Event of a Mesoscale Dust
Front—A Case Study Over the Eastern
Mediterranean
Nitsa Haikin and Pinhas Alpert
Abstract An extreme dust event occurred over southern Israel, where meteorological and air pollution observations suggested that the front was about 100 km wide
and the extreme dust concentration formed an advancing “wall” of more than 1 km
high. In this study, the atmospheric model RAMS was employed with nested grids
over the event domain, where strong turbulence was demonstrated by the model. The
simulations showed some turbulent features which supported the observations, yet
weren’t sufficient to explain the full development of the dust front.
68.1 Introduction
Dust or sand storms are rather frequent over the Eastern Mediterranean, where occasionally PM concentrations exceed background levels by an order of magnitude or
more. Dust storms may build up gradually over a very short time, such was the
case of the current study. A significant unpredicted dust and sand storm occurred on
May 2nd 2007 over southern Israel, with a very strong wind shear at its front. The
front was observed as an advancing brown wall. Numerous ground stations recorded
an order of magnitude wind amplification accompanied by a sharp drop of temperature. The forecasters missed to predict this storm, however, an Israeli Air-Force
pilot documented this event from the air and he estimated its advancing velocity as
60 km/hr, and its height as about 1300 m. RAMS was employed with high resolution
grids, to study the dynamics of the boundary layer, which allowed and supported the
development of this event.
N. Haikin (B) · P. Alpert
Department of Geosciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
e-mail: nitsahai@tauex.tau.ac.il
P. Alpert
e-mail: pinhas@tauex.tau.ac.il
N. Haikin
Department of Physics, NRCN, Beer Sheva, Israel
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_68
427
An Extreme Event of a Mesoscale Dust
Front—A Case Study Over the Eastern
Mediterranean
Nitsa Haikin and Pinhas Alpert
Abstract An extreme dust event occurred over southern Israel, where meteorological and air pollution observations suggested that the front was about 100 km wide
and the extreme dust concentration formed an advancing “wall” of more than 1 km
high. In this study, the atmospheric model RAMS was employed with nested grids
over the event domain, where strong turbulence was demonstrated by the model. The
simulations showed some turbulent features which supported the observations, yet
weren’t sufficient to explain the full development of the dust front.
68.1 Introduction
Dust or sand storms are rather frequent over the Eastern Mediterranean, where occasionally PM concentrations exceed background levels by an order of magnitude or
more. Dust storms may build up gradually over a very short time, such was the
case of the current study. A significant unpredicted dust and sand storm occurred on
May 2nd 2007 over southern Israel, with a very strong wind shear at its front. The
front was observed as an advancing brown wall. Numerous ground stations recorded
an order of magnitude wind amplification accompanied by a sharp drop of temperature. The forecasters missed to predict this storm, however, an Israeli Air-Force
pilot documented this event from the air and he estimated its advancing velocity as
60 km/hr, and its height as about 1300 m. RAMS was employed with high resolution
grids, to study the dynamics of the boundary layer, which allowed and supported the
development of this event.
N. Haikin (B) · P. Alpert
Department of Geosciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
e-mail: nitsahai@tauex.tau.ac.il
P. Alpert
e-mail: pinhas@tauex.tau.ac.il
N. Haikin
Department of Physics, NRCN, Beer Sheva, Israel
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_68
427