The WInd-blown Sand Experiment (WISE) – UAE: Introduction and first results

The Arabian Peninsula is among the major dust sources on Earth. Here, dust storms occur frequently as a result of the action of surface winds on desert surface such as the Empty Quarter Desert located in southern Arabian Peninsula. Despite being a frequent occurrence, no direct measurement of dust emission in this region existed to date. In summer 2022, the WInd-blown Sand Experiment (WISE) kicked off in the Empty Quarter area located in southern United Arab Emirates (UAE). The aim of the experiment is to quantify dust emission from this major dust source through direct observations. A full set of instrumentation is being operated to study saltation, winds, temperature, humidity, radiative fluxes, physical and optical properties of dust aerosols, atmospheric electric field, and soil properties. In this presentation, we describe the instrumentation being used in WISE UAE and we show some preliminary results during different weather regimes such as strong wind erosion, local convection, dense radiation fog and land-sea breeze. The analysis of atmospheric electric field data suggests the presence of relatively higher electric field at the onset of sea breeze occurrence and wind erosion events. The detailed investigation on relative humidity, frictional velocity, dust particle size distribution impact on the electric field will be presented. WISE is a first-of-its-kind experiment in the region and it aims ultimately at improving dust parametrizations in numerical models. We hope that this presentation at the EGU can trigger collaborations in this direction.