Abstract
This study's main objective is to examine the impact of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation on dust storms in Iraq and trying to find a reasonable synoptic explanation of this relationship. In order to achieve our goal, various data collections related to dust storm days from eight stations in Iraq and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation data over the period 1971–2016 were analyzed. The results showed a negative relationship between dust storms and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. This correlation means high dust storms are associated with La Niña, while the low dust storms occur during the El Niño event. The coupling between the tropical pacific sector and dust storms in Iraq is perhaps related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation variations and how they can contribute to the change of the main pressure system values that mainly participate in triggering dust storms and their intensity. The subtropical high-pressure and the Indian monsoon low-pressure systems have been recognized as the responsible pressure systems for dust storms formation.
Highlights
Dust storms are actively an important phenomenon that can modify the global climate system, including the impact on the solar and ground radiation and water balances as well as their severe social and health effects
There are nearly 355 dust storms recorded in Iraq for 46 years (1971- 2016) as an average
It is obvious that dust storms can occur anywhere over the territory of Iraq but most likely occur over the Nasiriya station in the south of Iraq
Summary
Dust storms are actively an important phenomenon that can modify the global climate system, including the impact on the solar and ground radiation and water balances as well as their severe social and health effects. The climate simulation models indicate that the percentage of dust emissions from the Middle East region estimated at 24% of total global dust emission (Ginoux et al, 2004). The study area suffers from land degradation caused by the draining of the Marshlands, large-scale military operations, increased mining activities, oil extraction, construction, and urbanization. All these factors with strong and turbulent wind led to raising large quantities of dust into
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