ANALYSIS OF RECENT CLIMATIC CHANGES IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA REGION

Interest in the potential climatic consequences of the continued build up of anthropo-generated greenhouse gases has led many scientists to c onduct extensive climate change studies at the global, hemispheric, an d regional scales. In this investigation, analyses are conducted on lo ng-term historical climate records from the Arabian Peninsula region. Over the last 100 years, temperatures in the region increased linearly by 0.63 degrees C. However, virtually all of this warming occurred fr om 1911-1935, and over the most recent 50 years, the Arabian Peninsula region has cooled slightly. In addition, the satellite-based measurem ents of lower-tropospheric temperatures for the region do not show any statistically significant warming over the period 1979-1991. While ma ny other areas of the world are showing a decrease in the diurnal temp erature range, the Arabian Peninsula region reveals no evidence of a l ong-term change in this parameter. Precipitation records for the regio n show a slight, statistically insignificant decrease over the past 40 years. The results from this study should complement the mass of info rmation that has resulted from similar regional climate studies conduc ted in the United States, Europe, and Australia.