Atmospheric and Meteorological Data From the Kuwait Oil Fires Taken from Ground Observations

Ground-based studies of the smoke and air quality from the Kuwait oil
fires were carried out in 1991 at the end of the Persian Gulf
War. Over 600 oil wells, storage tanks, and refineries were ignited by
the Iraqi army as they fled Kuwait in Frebuary 1991. The fires
produced large smoke plumes which had a significant environmental
effect on the Persian Gulf region. Ground-based observations of the
meteorology and air quality in the Persian Gulf region consist of both
land-based surface observations and land-based upper air observations.

Land-based surface observations consisted of: 1) MEPA - Mobile Air
Quality Stations operating at 6 sites in Saudi Arabia. These stations
measured meteorological parameters (pressure, relative humidity,
temperature, and wind speed and direction), air chemistry (H2S,NH3),
nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), nitrous oxide (N2O),
ozone and sulfur dioxide (SO2), and visible radiation; (2) National
Meteorological Center (NMC) meteorological data from many different
sites/airports/military installations in the Persian Gulf region; (3)
wind measurements from 13 meteorological towers in Kuwait; (4) Obirin
University, Tokyo, Japan air quality measurements at various sites in
Kuwait City; (5) SAIC (sponsored by DNA) radiometers collected at the
University of Bahrain and the Bahrain Meteorological Office. These
include measurements from monochromators, Epply pyranometers,
ultraviolet radiometers, and rotating shadowband radiometers.

Upper air measurements and meteorological observations were obtained
by the NMC at different ground sites throughout the Persian Gulf
region.

The Kuwait oil fire ground-observation data are organized by
site. There were about 80-90 sites where measurements were
conducted. The ground-based data can be ordered on-line at the Kuwait
Data Archive (KUDA) via internet: telnet kuda.atd.ucar.edu (login:
kuda; password: science). Access software is available to read the
data and browse the metadata.

Also see the KuDA Home Page at:

'http://www.atd.ucar.edu/kuwait/kuda_title.html'