Preliminary assessment of atmospheric turbidity at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Spectral beam solar radiation measurements for the period July 1980 to June 1981 were made in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (Lat. 26° 23′, Long. 50° 00′), using broad-band niter techniques. Schott filters (OG1, RG2 and R08) arranged on an automatically rotated disk mounted on an Eppley Normal Incidence Pyrhcliometer were used for the measurements. The Beer-Lambert relation was used to calculate optical depths from which values of the Angström Coefficient of Turbidity, β, were obtained for the wavelength exponent, α = 1.3. In addition, Herovanu's method was used to obtain α and β values for each month. The 12-month average values of β and α were 0.22 and 1.28, respectively.