Abstract            Volume:10  Issue-11  Year-2022         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

In this study, we performed a back-trajectory analysis of atmospheric aerosols in West Africa during the period 2010 - 2019. For this purpose, we collected meteorological data from the Air Resource Laboratory (ARL) GDAS 1° distribution and archiving centre for the West African region. These data represent daily averages of geophysical parameters of the atmosphere. We also collected daily averages of aerosol optical thickness and size coefficient from six photometric stations of the AERONET network during the period 2010 - 2019 in order to characterize the aerosol types in West Africa. Using the HYSPLIT model we calculated the back-trajectory of air masses from the six AERONET sites which are: Banizoumbou, Cape Verde, Dakar, IER de Cinazana, Ilorin andZinder. The results obtained indicate that locally generated atmospheric aerosols in West Africa are a mixture of both fine and coarse modes with a predominance of coarse mode in May, June, July and August for the Cape Verde and Dakar sites, March, April, May and June for the IER sites of Cinzana, Banizoumbou, Zinder. On the other hand, in Ilorin, fine particles dominate the local atmospheric column in the months of June, July, August until November. The calculation of back-trajectories from the considered sites allowed to determine their spatial distribution across the continent and beyond. The air mass trajectories calculated with the HYSPLIT model reveal that these aerosols are dispersed throughout the West African region and go beyond to reach the northern and central regions of the African continent and even southern Europe.

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