A Fog Climatology at Abu Dhabi International Airport

Abstract

Fog has a significant effect on aviation and road transport networks around the world. The International Airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, experiences dense fog during winter months that affect operations at the airport. We describe the fog climatology at the airport using 36 years of aviation routine weather reports (METAR), an important long-term data source, and report on the number of fog days per year, the seasonal cycle, the diurnal cycle, and the duration of fog events. Fog days per year vary from 8 to 51, with a mean of ~23.91 days (standard deviation of 9.83). Events are most frequent from September until March, with December and January being the most active months. November, unexpectedly, has a low number of fog days, which appears to be due to a decrease in aerosol loading in the atmosphere. The most fog days experienced in one month is 13 (March 2004). Fog occurs any time from 1900 to 1100 local time, and the frequency increases as night progresses, peaking around sunrise. Fog events most frequently last 1 h or less. Events of 9 h or more were recorded in January and December, with the longest event lasting 16 h. Events are strongly dependent on the land–sea breeze and seldom form when the wind is blowing from the Arabian Gulf. The thickness of the nocturnal inversion layer increases up to about 500 m AGL on fog days as compared with 273 m AGL on clear-sky days. This study is the first to use the 36-yr dataset to characterize fog climatology at Abu Dhabi Airport.