SEASONAL AND LONG-TERM CHANGES OF AIR AND SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURE AND IMPACT OF THE GULF-WAR IN THE ARABIAN GULF AND GULF OF OMAN

Monthly mean air temperature time series, recorded at four meteorological stations; Doha airport (middle of the Arabian Gulf, Seeb, Sur and Masira (at the Arabian side of Gulf of Oman), are analyzed. Sea surface temperature and global radiation monthly means are also considered at Doha. Moving average, anomaly from the climatic means, the trend equations of moving average and the anomaly and power spectral density are estimated for the different data sets. No regional warming was detected in the study area from the present data whose length reached 35 years. The anomaly of air temperature has a cycle with a period 13 months, hence the minimum seasonal value of original data and the minimum anomaly are superimposed each 12 month which is close to the solar sunspot cycle. The significant oscillations in the different records, shown by the spectral analysis, manifest the maximum power density in the seasonal cycle. The impact of the burning oil at Kuwait during the Gulf war was well presented at Doha airport with a decrease in the global radiation by about 20% in 1991-1992.