Regional Climate Variability and its Impacts in the Mediterranean Area

About this book

Global change due to natural processes and anthropogenic activity as well as the natural variability of the climate system will impact all areas of the globe. However, the impact will not be uniform and different impacts of differing magnitude and nature will be felt in various regions of the globe. The Mediterranean region, like other regions of the world, will face some unique and different impacts.

The uniqueness and difference in the Mediterranean are to be expected given some special dynamical, chemical, biological, and land characteristics of the region. The Mediterranean region is often exposed to multiple stresses, such as a simultaneous water shortage and air pollution. This is a consequence of its unique location and emissions. One of the common stresses in North Africa is water shortage and distribution amongst the seasons. Air pollution can often add to the water stress. Air pollution occurs due to emissions in the region as well as from those transported from other areas and can occur when there is low water availability. Multiple stresses are likely to grow in the future when human induced stress is likely to increase due to the rapid industrialization of the region.

This NATO workshop was set up to discuss these issues in general, and the influence of chemical emissions and transformation in particular. This workshop was "special" because it involved a very large number of scientists (>75%) from the region, either from North Africa or the Mediterranean Europe. Many key issues, some of which are specific to this region, were identified. Details of the findings and suggestions are presented in the articles in this volume. The workshop was held in Marrakech, Morocco, from 23rd to 26th November 2006.

Contents

Preface. Acknowledgments. 1. Climate and its Variability: Global and Regional Perspective. 1-a) Long-range Transport of Pollutants Above the Eastern Mediterranean: Implications for Air Quality and Regional Climate; N. Mihalopoulos.- 1-b) African dust: its large-scale transport over the Atlantic Ocean and its impact on the Mediterranean region; J.M. Prospero.- 1-c) Radiative and Physiological Effects of Increased CO2, How does this interaction affect Climate in the Mediterranean Region?; L. Bounoua.- 1-d) Climate altering trace gases in Mediterranean area: Trends and source allocation; M. Maione.- 1-e) Key processes for dust emissions and their modeling; G. Bergametti, B. Marticorena, B. Laurent.- 2. Modelling of the Global and Regional Phenomena. 2-a) Climate/Water-cycle feedbacks in the Mediterranean: the role of land-use changes and the propagation of perturbations at the regional and global scale; M. Millan.- 2-b) Aerosols direct radiative forcing on Djougou (Northern Benin) during the AMMA dry season experiment; M. Malle et al.- 3. Climate and Regional Air Quality. 3-a) Impact of changing climate and emissions on surface ozone distributions and evolution; H. Tanimoto et al.- 3-b) Short and long-term transport of crustal and anthropogenic inorganic components of coarse and fine aerosols over Beirut, Lebanon; N. Saliba et al.- 4. Details of Chemical and Aerosols Processes. 4-a) Aerosols in global models -- focus on Europe; M. Kanakidou.- 4-b) Measurements of ozone, Black Carbon and particle size distributions along a Mediterranean cruise track during the period: October 2005-October 2006; K. Velchev et al.- 4-c) Concentration and chemical composition of PM2.5 and PM 10- 2.5 in the north-eastern Mediterranean; N. Kubilay et al.- 4-d) Non-methane volatile organic compound measurements in the city centre of Wroclaw, Poland; A. Niedojadlo et al.- 4-e) Non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC) variability in the eastern Mediterranean; C. Arsene et al.- 4-f) Representation of chemical detail in atmospheric models; M.J. Pilling.- 4-g) Photoenhanced uptake of NO2 on mineral dust; C. George et al.- 4-h) Gas phase processes relevant to the Mediterranean: Some new and important topics; I. Barnes, I. Bejan.- 5. Other presentations. 5-a) Climate change and its impacts in Morocco; M.S. Karrouk.- 5-b) The effect of climate changes on the disposal facility of natural occurring radioactive materials in Egypt; M. Abdel Geleel Mohamed.- 5-c) Analysis of down looking GPS occultation simulated data using least squares and abel inversions; A. El-Kutb Mousa, T. Tsuda.- 5-e) Presentation of MADEPODIM project; A. Azzi.- List of Participants. Authors Index. Subject Index

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