Atmosphere (Jun 2024)

Natural Aerosols, Gaseous Precursors and Their Impacts in Greece: A Review from the Remote Sensing Perspective

  • Vassilis Amiridis,
  • Stelios Kazadzis,
  • Antonis Gkikas,
  • Kalliopi Artemis Voudouri,
  • Dimitra Kouklaki,
  • Maria-Elissavet Koukouli,
  • Katerina Garane,
  • Aristeidis K. Georgoulias,
  • Stavros Solomos,
  • George Varlas,
  • Anna Kampouri,
  • Dimitra Founda,
  • Basil E. Psiloglou,
  • Petros Katsafados,
  • Kyriakoula Papachristopoulou,
  • Ilias Fountoulakis,
  • Panagiotis-Ioannis Raptis,
  • Thanasis Georgiou,
  • Anna Gialitaki,
  • Emmanouil Proestakis,
  • Alexandra Tsekeri,
  • Eleni Drakaki,
  • Eleni Marinou,
  • Elina Giannakaki,
  • Stergios Misios,
  • John Kapsomenakis,
  • Kostas Eleftheratos,
  • Nikos Hatzianastassiou,
  • Pavlos Kalabokas,
  • Prodromos Zanis,
  • Mihalis Vrekoussis,
  • Alexandros Papayannis,
  • Andreas Kazantzidis,
  • Konstantinos Kourtidis,
  • Dimitris Balis,
  • Alkiviadis F. Bais,
  • Christos Zerefos

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15070753
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 7
p. 753

Abstract

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The Mediterranean, and particularly its Eastern basin, is a crossroad of air masses advected from Europe, Asia and Africa. Anthropogenic emissions from its megacities meet over the Eastern Mediterranean, with natural emissions from the Saharan and Middle East deserts, smoke from frequent forest fires, background marine and pollen particles emitted from ocean and vegetation, respectively. This mixture of natural aerosols and gaseous precursors (Short-Lived Climate Forcers—SLCFs in IPCC has short atmospheric residence times but strongly affects radiation and cloud formation, contributing the largest uncertainty to estimates and interpretations of the changing cloud and precipitation patterns across the basin. The SLCFs’ global forcing is comparable in magnitude to that of the long-lived greenhouse gases; however, the local forcing by SLCFs can far exceed those of the long-lived gases, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Monitoring the spatiotemporal distribution of SLCFs using remote sensing techniques is important for understanding their properties along with aging processes and impacts on radiation, clouds, weather and climate. This article reviews the current state of scientific know-how on the properties and trends of SLCFs in the Eastern Mediterranean along with their regional interactions and impacts, depicted by ground- and space-based remote sensing techniques.

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