Preliminary properties of Saharan aerosol over Tamanrasset (Algeria)

This preliminary study was carried out to present the desertic aerosol and the associated characteristics over tamanrasset (algeria) and their chemical composition. two kinds of data were used: data of an international field campaign,combined data from sunphotometer and optical particle counter,which was conducted in february-november 2006 under the african monsoon multidisciplinary analysis (amma) framework; and data (october 2006-january 2009) from a sunphotometer which was set up at tamanrasset (algeria) by the izaña atmospheric research center (spain) in collaboration with l'office nationale de la météorologie (algeria). this study allowed to characterize this area of sahara by: a) a bimodal granulometric distribution largely dominated by the coarse mode; b) a dominant component in si,al and fe; c) a discrimination of two seasons: autumn-winter,characterized by low aerosol optical depth (aod) and high angstrom exponent (ae) and spring-summer,with strong and frequent mineral dust storms,characterized by high aod and low ae.