Fog formation, causes and types over the Abu Dhabi International Airport, United Arab Emirates

Fog is a meteorological event which has a significant impact on many human activities such as transportation, civil aviation, and military operations. UAE experiences many dense fog episodes over the course of a year which effect the visibility conditions strongly, especially during the winter months. In this research, we studied the fog events over Abu Dhabi International Airport, which is located at the northeastern coast of UAE, using METAR (2012 to 2022) and ERA5 data. The number of fog days per year, the seasonal cycle, the diurnal cycle, and the duration of fog events were analyzed. Fog events are most frequent between September to March with a peak during December and January.  Statistics of the fog events and the related atmospheric variables such as temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction during the fog episodes will be presented. Additional case studies that were conducted to understand and explain the reasons and types of the fog events over the region will also be displayed.