Air Quality and Climate Change in the Arabian BAsin (AQABA)
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AQABA (Air Quality and Climate Change in the Arabian Basin) campaign was a shipborne campaign organized by Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz in collaboration with The Cyprus Institute and other universities and research centers worldwide.
The Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME) region has exceptional environmental specificities, with extensive deserts, and is the most water-scarce region on Earth. In addition, heat extremes, dryness, atmospheric dust and air pollution combine into a major public health hazard.
The AQABA project aimed to address these issues, by providing the first-ever comprehensive in-situ characterization of the photochemical and aerosol processes in the EMME.For this purpose, 2.5-month oceanographic cruise (during summer 2017) was organized conducting pioneering atmospheric measurements across the Mediterranean and Arabian Basin (Toulon-Kuwait-Toulon).
Both the CAO and USRL teams participated in the AQABA campaign. The CAO team contributed a suite of instruments including a nephelometer, two aethalometers, a MARGA system, an NO₂ monitor, and several remote sensing instruments.
Summer 2017
