Time-spatial analysis of clouds using Era5 database data during the last 30 years in Khuzestan province
Subject Areas : Climatology
Mohammad Bafghizadeh
1
(Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Payame Noor University, PO BOX 19395-3697 Tehran, IRAN)
Fatemeh Saghi
2
(Ph.D student in Climatology, Department of Geography, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran.)
gabraail Ghorbanian
3
(Department of Geography, Ahvaz Branch, Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran)
رضا برنا
4
(دانشیار گروه جغرافیا، واحد علوم و تحقیقات تهران، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران)
Keywords: Cloud base height, cloudiness percentage, Khuzestan province,
Abstract :
Knowledge of the temporal and spatial structure of clouds in each region plays an essential role in planning and checking programs based on water and energy resources. The main goal of this research is to analyze the temporal-spatial structure of cloudiness in Khuzestan province using gridded data of ECMWF cloud database version ERA5 in Khuzestan province during the statistical period of 1990-2020. The cloudiness data included the height of the base or cloud floor, the percentage of sky cloud coverage by the upper, middle and lower clouds of each pixel was 0.25 degrees of arc. The results showed that, firstly, in both hot and cold periods of the year, the northeastern and mountainous parts of the province had higher cloud coverage than the plains and lowland areas of the province. In the cold period of the year, the percentage of cloudiness of the sky varied between 25 and 60%, while in the warm period of the year, the percentage of sky cloudiness reached less than 5%. In addition, it was observed that at the level of Khuzestan province, the highest share of cloud cover in the cold period of the year is related to upper clouds. These clouds have a share of 25% in the cloud coverage of Khuzestan province during the cold period of the year. Meanwhile, middle clouds have a share of 16% in the cloud cover of the sky of Khuzestan province.