Atmospheric Water Resources and Their Exploitability in the Middle East

Abstract The Middle East (ME) has suffered from severe water stress owing to the limited availability of surface freshwater. The exploitation of atmospheric water may be a potential solution for resolving the water crisis in the ME. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of atmospheric water resources, as well as their exploitability, mainly including the evaluation of precipitation and atmospheric water resources, imbalance analysis between precipitation and atmospheric water, and trend analysis. The exploitability of air water resources was also studied in combination with the vertical distribution of air water vapor. The results indicate that the precipitable water in most areas of the ME shows a significant increasing trend, but the Arabian Peninsula is becoming drier due to the decline in the ability to convert atmospheric water resources to precipitation; the most recommended areas for artificial precipitation exist in southern Sudan and Chad and western Turkey, which have rich background water vapor and preferred precipitation conversion mechanisms. Such knowledge provides a reference for the exploitation of atmospheric water resources in the ME.