In this study, the trends of
upper-air temperatures are analysed by utilising radiosonde observations for
the barometric levels at 700, 500, 300, 200, 150, 100 and 50 hPa from five
meteorological stations within the Arabian Peninsula from January 1986 to August 2015. The mean monthly
variations of the temperatures at these levels are characterised and
established. The magnitudes of the annual trends of the mean temperatures for
each site for the selected barometric levels are studied and statistically
tested using Mann-Kendall rank statistics at different significance
levels. The temperature trends at different pressure levels
show that the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere are warming, while the
middle troposphere is cooling which is consistent with the findings of other
studies. The variations in upper air
temperature observed in this study can be attributed to a range of factors,
including increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, changes in atmospheric
circulation patterns, variations in solar activity, aerosols and volcanic
eruptions, and land use and land cover change.
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