Tracking Severe Dust Storms Phenomenon in Southeast Iran by using HYSPLIT

Subject Areas : climate

Seyed Abdolhossein Arami ¹ , Ebrahim Karimi Sangchini ² , Mehri Dinarvand ³

1 - Assistant Professor, Forests and Rangelands Research Department, Khuzestan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Ahvaz, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor, Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Department, Lorestan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Khorramabad, Iran.
3 - Assistant Professor, Forests and Rangelands Research Department, Khuzestan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Ahvaz, Iran

Received: 2022-05-24 Accepted : 2022-07-10 Published : 2022-05-22

Keywords: dust storm, HYSPLIT, southwest regions of Iran,

Abstract :

Regional dust storm events are the prime concern of many countries located within the arid belt of the world. Nowadays, dust is a serious challenge in the world, especially in the Middle East. In recent decades, dust storms is known as the most damaging and inclusive environmental crisis in Iran due to the impacts of climate and land use changes. The aim of this study is to detect and simulation of dust storms in southwest regions of Iran. For this purpose, changes in dust were analyzed during a 22-year period (1995-2016) for six provinces southwest of Iran including Khozestan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari, Lorestan and Kohgiluyeh, and Boyerahmad with an area of about 169266 square kilometers. For this study were using the HYSPLIT model. The data used covered and include GDAS data, view field, velocity and direction of a wind, temperature, and geopotential height in the atmosphere, which are different at various levels. GDAS data for tracking the winding path in the HYSPLIT model were used. Simulation studies of dust particle movement paths have shown that most of the tracks are from the northern and central parts of Iraq and Syria and the source of dust storms are deserts and dry regions of the northern and central parts of Iraq and Syria.