Spatio-temporal and synoptic changes in dust at the three islands in the Persian Gulf region

Abstract

The occurrence of severe and inclusive dust storms has caused a lot of damage every year in the Persian Gulf region and it has destructive environmental effects in this area. The aim of this study is to investigate the monthly changes in the frequency of dust storms over Khark, Kish and Qeshm islands located in the Persian Gulf region during the 10-year period (2007–2017) using satellite and model observations. The results show that the highest dust frequency was observed over Qeshm Island followed by Kish and Khark Islands. The highest number of dusty days was reported in all three stations in 2008 and most of the dust events occurred in May and July as compared to other months. The average wind speed in these two months (May and July) shows that the wind directions are mostly from northern and northwestern areas. The dust AOD evaluation of eight dust prediction models shows that the models simulated AOD patterns vary differently from each other for a severe dust storm on July 14, 2014 in the study area. Among the eight models, DREAM8-MACC model has a better performance and has good agreement with satellite observations. The analysis showed a high correlation (R = 0.74) between AERONET and DREAM8-MACC model AOD at the observation sites.