<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v3.0 20080202//EN" "https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/nlm-dtd/publishing/3.0/journalpublishing3.dtd">
<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="research-article" specific-use="SMUR" dtd-version="3.0" xml:lang="en">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2025-5234</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Microphysical and Compositional Differences Between Saharan and Middle Eastern Dust Revealed by UAS Observations</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kezoudi</surname>
<given-names>Maria</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8262-5079</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Papetta</surname>
<given-names>Alkistis</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9967-144X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kandler</surname>
<given-names>Konrad</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8268-6557</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ryder</surname>
<given-names>Claire L.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9892-6113</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Leonidou</surname>
<given-names>Andreas</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Keleshis</surname>
<given-names>Christos</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Stopford</surname>
<given-names>Chris</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6773-4864</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Thornberry</surname>
<given-names>Troy</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7478-1944</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mamouri</surname>
<given-names>Rodanthi-Elisavet</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4836-8560</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sciare</surname>
<given-names>Jean</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Marenco</surname>
<given-names>Franco</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1833-1102</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>CARE-C, The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Applied Geosciences, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Innovation Centre, Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute, Larnaca, Cyprus</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence, Limassol, Cyprus</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff8">
<label>8</label>
<addr-line>Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>27</day>
<month>11</month>
<year>2025</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2025</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>32</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2025 Maria Kezoudi et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2025</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-5234/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-5234/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-5234/egusphere-2025-5234.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-5234/egusphere-2025-5234.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>The rising frequency of mineral dust events in the eastern Mediterranean underscores the need for high-resolution observations to better characterize their properties and impacts. This study reports results from the Cyprus Fall Campaign 2021, which aimed to test and validate a new cost-effective methodology for quantitative dust measurements using GPAC, POPS, and UCASS sensors on-board Uncrewed Aerial Systems(UAS). The Cyprus Fall Campaign 2021 captured the microphysical characteristics of dust particles from two major global sources: North Africa(NA) and the Middle East(ME). The campaign took place between 18/10/2021 and 18/11/2021 with continuous ground-based remote-sensing measurements, complementing 36 UAS flights. This work represents the first intensive UAS-based dust characterization campaign in Cyprus and the wider Mediterranean region during the autumn season. Integrated remote-sensing, in-situ, and trajectory analyses revealed NA dust heights up to 7 km over Cyprus, compared to 3.8 km for ME dust. Impactor sampling demonstrated a near-1 collection efficiency for particles between 4&amp;ndash;14 &amp;micro;m, highlighting its effectiveness onboard the UAS. Particle volume size distributions showed a fine-mode peak at 0.25 &amp;micro;m in both cases, and distinct coarse-mode peaks at 2.2 &amp;micro;m and 4.8 &amp;micro;m for NA and ME dust, respectively. High-altitude impactor samples showed two distinct dust signatures: NA dust enriched in kaolinite-like and Ca-bearing phases, and ME dust dominated by illite/muscovite and Fe-rich components, indicating contrasting source characteristics influenced by granulometry, transport, and atmospheric processing. This study showcases the capability of high-resolution UAS sampling to characterize atmospheric dust and improve understanding of its regional and climatic impacts.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="32"/></counts>
</article-meta>
</front>
<body/>
<back>
</back>
</article>