Quantification of spectral losses of Natural soiling and detailed microstructural analysis of Dust collected from Different locations in Dubai, UAE

In this work, we report a field study where glass coupons samples were deployed in four locations in Dubai to analyze the natural soiling over a period of 10 weeks. In the first part of the study, analysis was performed to understand how the solar irradiation is altered by dust soiling. It was observed that soiling causes a strong reduction across all the solar spectrum, and the visible region (400-600)nm wavelength showed the highest spectral soiling losses. Analysis also revealed that coastal industrial sites such as Jabil-Ali has higher dust accumulation and larger particle surface area compared to residential and desert locations. Sites located in the desert (Saih Al-Dahal) showed the lowest accumulation of dust and smaller particle surface area. Compositional microstructural analysis were performed to understand the nature of dust in each location and identify the main mechanisms that cause dust accumulation.