Severe ozone air pollution in the Persian Gulf region
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
Abstract. Recently it was discovered that over the Middle East during summer ozone mixing ratios can reach a pronounced maximum in the middle troposphere. Here we extend the analysis to the surface and show that especially in the Persian Gulf region conditions are highly favorable for ozone air pollution. We apply the EMAC atmospheric chemistry-climate model to investigate long-distance transport and the regional formation of ozone. Further, we make use of available in situ and satellite measurements and compare these with model output. The results indicate that the region is a hot spot of photochemical smog where European Union air quality standards are violated throughout the year. Long-distance transports of air pollution from Europe and the Middle East, natural emissions and stratospheric ozone conspire to bring about relatively high background ozone mixing ratios. This provides a hotbed to strong and growing indigenous air pollution in the dry local climate, and these conditions are likely to get worse in the future.
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Over the Red Sea, NMHCs are rate limiting due to small upwind anthropogenic sources.
“While in much of the Middle East NOx abundance is a rate-limiting factor in oxidant photochemistry12, it could be expected that over the Red Sea NMHCs are rate limiting due to small upwind anthropogenic sources.”
From The Red Sea Deep Water is a potent source of atmospheric ethane and propane (2020) · cites this paper as [12]
The citation is attached to the claim that NOx limits oxidant photochemistry in much of the Middle East, not to the citing authors’ expectation about the Red Sea. The Introduction describes ozone formation as catalyzed by NOx, and §3 calls NOx a particularly important ozone precursor, but neither passage establishes that NOx abundance is rate-limiting across much of the region. (LLM, conf=0.78)
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References 53 · Cited by 141
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): Climate change 2007: The physical science basis; Contribution of work- ing group I to the fourth assessment report of the IPCC, edited by: Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., et al., Cambridge Uni- versity Press, Cambridge, UK, and New York, 2007.
- Authors
- Lelieveld, J., Hoor, P., Jöckel, P., Pozzer, A., Hadjinicolaou, P., Cammas, J.-P., & Beirle, S.
- Affiliations
- Cyprus Institute (CY)
- Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (DE)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Venue
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
- Publisher
- Copernicus GmbH
- Published
- 2009-02-20
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1393-1406
- ISSN
- 1680-7316 (ISSN-L)
- 1680-7324
- OpenAlex
- W2021147278
- Cited by
- 141
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 3.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Atmospheric chemistry and physics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- European Commission
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric Ozone and Climate
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
- Keywords
- Persian Gulf region, photochemical smog, long-distance transport, stratospheric ozone, natural emissions, EMAC model, satellite ozone measurements
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