This study investigates the atmospheric dynamics of the major dust storm that occurred in June 2020 over the Sahara and during which dust clouds associated with the highest‐on‐record aerosol optical depths were transported toward the America. An anomalous atmospheric circulation pattern in the mid‐latitudes, linked to a circumglobal wavetrain, resulted in the development of a subtropical high‐pressure system to the west of the Saharan heat low. This created a pressure dipole and generated anomalously strong northeasterlies over the Sahara, which caused continuous dust emissions over 4 days. Occurring along the northern fringes of the intertropical discontinuity, the dust was transported to higher altitudes (6 km) by the strong updraft in this region. This injected the dust at the African Easterly Jet (AEJ) altitudes and favored a rapid westward long‐range transport. The AEJ was also anomalously strong, being strengthened by the anticyclonic circulation associated with the anomalous high.

The aerodynamic roughness length is a crucial parameter that controls surface variables including the horizontal wind, surface temperature, and heat fluxes. Despite its importance, in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, this parameter is typically assigned a predefined value, mostly based on the dominant land‐use type. In this work, the roughness length is first estimated from eddy‐covariance measurements at Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a hyper‐arid region, and then ingested into WRF. The estimated roughness length is in the range 1.3–2.2 mm, one order smaller than the default value used in WRF. In line with previous studies, and from WRF model simulations during the warm and cold seasons, it is concluded that, when the roughness length is decreased by an order of magnitude, the horizontal wind speed increases by up to 1 m s⁻¹, the surface temperature rises by up to 2.5°C, and the sensible heat flux decreases by as much as 10 W m⁻². In comparison with in situ station and eddy covariance data, and when forced with the updated roughness length, WRF gives more accurate 2‐m air temperature and sensible heat flux predictions. For prevailing wind speeds >6 m s⁻¹, the model underestimates the strength of the near‐surface wind, a tendency that can be partially corrected, typically by 1–3 m s⁻¹, when the updated roughness length is considered. For low wind speeds (<4 m s⁻¹), however, WRF generally overestimates the strength of the wind.

In this article, the climatological state and the seasonal variability of the Arabian heat low (AHL) and the intertropical discontinuity (ITD) are investigated over the Arabian Peninsula using the 1979–2019 ERA‐5 reanalysis data. The AHL is a summertime feature, mostly at 15°–35°N and 40°–60°E, exhibiting a clear strengthening over the last four decades in line with the observed increase in surface temperature. However, no clear shift in its position is detected. The AHL, driven by both thermodynamic and dynamic forcing, is broader and stronger during daytime and exhibits considerable variability on day‐to‐day timescales, likely due to the convection associated with the Asian summer monsoon. The ITD is the boundary between the hot and dry desert air and the cooler and more moist air from the Arabian Sea. It lies along the Arabian Peninsula's southern coastline in the cold season but reaches up to 28°N between 50° and 60°E in the summer months. While in the former it has a rather small diurnal variability; in the latter it shows daily fluctuations of up to 10° in latitude. The presence of the Sarawat Mountains over southwestern Saudi Arabia precludes a northward migration of the ITD in this area. The ITD exhibited a weak northward migration in the 41‐year period, likely due to the increased sea surface temperatures in the Arabian Sea. On inter‐annual timescales, the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation, the Indian Ocean Dipole, and solar‐geomagnetic effects play an important role in the AHL's and ITD's variability.

This study provides insights on the composition and variability of atmospheric aerosols over the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by analyzing the atmospheric conditions together with 14 years (2006–2019) of aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieved from CALIPSO (Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) satellite, and 7 years of AOD measured from the ground‐based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET).We found that mineral dust is the most prevailing aerosol subtype. In addition, polluted dust and polluted continental aerosols are observed mostly in the cold season. The AOD is higher in spring and summer, when the atmospheric conditions are more favorable to the occurrence of dust events. Moreover, there is another peak in winter associated with dust storms triggered by mid‐latitude baroclinic systems. In summer’s daytime, extinction coefficients in excess of 0.2 km⁻¹ are observed up to 3–4 km above the surface, as a result of the warmer and windier conditions. In the cold season and at night, the dust layers are confined to the lower atmosphere below 2 km. On a climatological time scale, we found that the AOD over the UAE has been decreasing since 2009, possibly due to the increasing trend in precipitation and changes in land use.This study highlights the large contribution of dust aerosols to the total aerosol load over the UAE and stresses on the need to account for mineral dust aerosols in climate‐air pollution related studies as well as weather and air quality forecasts.