Abstract
Open seas in the south of the Iran plateau are under the influence of heavy dust storms which are originating either from the Tigris and Euphrates basin, the Arabian Peninsula or Hamoun lake. We have used the recordings of the CALIPSO satellite to investigate the seasonal variations as well as the origins of the dust storms over the region. CALIPSO data set shows dust activities are frequent during May to September in the interested region and the Hamoun lake has considerable impacts on it.
Highlights
Iran, a country on the dust belt, is surrounded by several sources such as: Tigris and Euphrates basin in west, the region between the Caspian and Aral seas in north, and the Arabian Peninsula in south [1,2,3]
As we divided the whole area into four sub regions (Figure 1), it has Figure 4. 4-month averaged wind field over the Iran plateau during 2006 to 2015 at 700 hPa, a- February to May, b- June to September, c- October to January, NCEP/NCAR reanalysis
This is in exact temporal coincidence with the annual cycle of 120day Sistan Levar wind (Figure 4b). This northerly wind takes the dust from the bed of seasonal Hamoun lake and transport it to Southeast Iran, West Pakistan, Oman and Arab seas and sometimes it even may affect the Indian ocean
Summary
A country on the dust belt, is surrounded by several sources such as: Tigris and Euphrates basin in west, the region between the Caspian and Aral seas in north, and the Arabian Peninsula in south [1,2,3]. The well-known northwesterly Shamal wind, transfer dust plumes from the Mesopotamian region toward the Iran plateau and the Persian Gulf area [1, 2, 4] Such dust activities may be intensified by other dust sources (like those inside the Arabian Peninsula) and influence on a quite wide region which extends up to the Arabian sea, Indian Ocean and Indian subcontinent [5]. Dust sources in the Arabian Peninsula mostly are located in the south and east sides of the Peninsula, where they are quit active during April to September [1, 4] These sources mostly affect the Oman and Arabian seas, and even the Indian subcontinent but don’t have considerable impacts on the Iran plateau [2, 4,5,6].
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