Aerosol Optical Depth And Angstrom Exponent Observation Over Syria Using Modis/Aqua Satellite Data During 2010-2020

Abstract

Pollutants that are emitted to the atmosphere cause wide climatic changes which have greatly affected the aspects life on Earth. Aerosols are one of the most important of these pollutants, and emitted into the atmosphere from natural and anthropogenic sources. In this research, we studied the properties of aerosols AOD (Aerosol Optical Depth), AE (Angstrom Exponent) over Syria during 2010 - 2020 using MODIS/Aqua satellite, the results of this study showed that AE and AOD changes significantly during the study period. The results of the annual changes of AOD over Syria showed that the large values were over Al Dear, while the small values were over Aleppo, and the minimum value was 0.19 ± 0.006 in 2014, While the average monthly changes of AOD showed that the maximum values were 0.44 ± 0.091 in May and 0.395 ± 0.07 in September. The results of the seasonly changes of AOD over Syria also showed that the values of AOD were low in winter, then rise in spring and summer, after that decrease again during the autumn. While the results for the average monthly changes of AE over Syria during 2010 -2020 showed that the maximum values of AE were 0.89 ± 0.07, 0.839 ± 0.07 during January and December respecively, the lowest values 0.42 ± 0.1 was in September. As for the seasonal changes of AE, it was shown that the small values of AE were in summer, while the large values  were during winter. Classification of aerosols over Syria during 2010 – 2020 showed that the aerosol over Syria is largely composed of maritime type.