The role of climate parameters variation in the intensification of dust phenomenon

Abstract

In recent years, the influence of natural agents such as drought and human activities has contributed to the intensification of dust phenomena. The storms came up in recent decade in most parts of Iran are new-fangled phenomena as regards intensification, extent, and frequency. Some reasons encouraging such environmental changes are shared by climate parameters. In this research, climate variations were investigated by scrutinizing long-term rainfall and temperature data via statistical and graphical tools. The relation between these variations and dust rate in Kurdistan Province, Iran, was studied. Mann–Kendall graphical test was used to explore the changes that occurred in the time series for average monthly temperature and rainfall. Spatial distribution of temperature and rainfall along with drought indices was supplied in the GIS environment. Also, alterations in the dust phenomenon were studied by analyzing the number of days with dust. The results showed that the changes in rainfall and temperature parameters have led to drought spread in the area. Within a long-term 30-year time series, 19 and 31 months were recorded as for changes in, respectively, average precipitation and temperature in the stations of the study area. In this trend, 7 and 5 months were reported with reference to abrupt changes in precipitation and temperature, respectively. Also, the number of days with dust has been increasing significantly. The results of this research could help quantify the role factors affecting the development of this phenomenon in the region.