Fog forecasting, detection and monitoring in the UAE using SEVIRI-MSG data

The UAE location on the edge of a very warm sea and hot and dry desert create the optimal conditions of inland fog forming. The afternoon sea breeze, which is almost a daily event in UAE coastal areas, transports moisture inland, then at clear sky conditions at night, the large surrounding desert radiates heat very efficiently and temperatures fall quickly. The rapid cooling of accumulated inland moisture during the night represents the optimal conditions for fog development. Fog detection and monitoring algorithms from remote sensing data have been developed during the last two decades. Retrieval of fog-related information from geostationary platforms has matured into applications at operational level in many national weather service programs in the USA, Europe and more recently in China. In this study, a satellite-based tool developed at EIAST for fog detection and monitoring in the UAE will be presented. Data collected by SEVIRI instrument onboard of the European Satellite Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) were the main source of spatial data. The development approaches and the preliminary results will be presented and discussed in this paper.