Journal Article

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

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

2024

Overview

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.

• Publisher: MDPI AG
• Subject: Aerosols / Aging (natural) / Air masses / Air pollution / Anthropogenic factors / Climate change / Cloud formation / Clouds / Decades / Dust / Emissions / Forest & brush fires / Forest fires / Greenhouse gases / Human influences / Infrastructure / Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change / Landsat satellites / Mediterranean / Megacities / Phase transitions / Pollen / Precipitation patterns / Precursors / Radiation / Radiation-cloud interactions / Remote monitoring / Remote sensing / Remote sensing techniques / Sensing techniques / Sensors / short-lived climate forcers / Spatial distribution / Temporal distribution / Trends / Vegetation / Weathering / Wind