Long-Term Investigation of Aerosols in the Urmia Lake Region in the Middle East by Ground-Based and Satellite Data in 2000–2021

Abadi, Abbas Ranjbar Saadat; Hamzeh, Nasim Hossein; Shukurov, K. A.; Opp, Christian; Dumka, U. C.

doi:10.3390/rs14153827

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Lake Urmia is a lake in north-western Iran (see Figure 2), near the Turkish border, which has been reported by Tourian et al (2015) to have lost ∼70% of its area between 2002 and 2014, with a reduction in water volume from 10 to under 2 km 3 during this period. This has been caused by water mismanagement and by drought, and has led to the lake having the potential to be a local dust source (Abadi et al, 2022;Gholampour et al, 2015;Sotoudeheian et al, 2016). In more recent years it has, however, seen some positive recovery in its water coverage.…”

Section: Other Desiccating Lakes In Central Asia and The Middle Eastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of the Desiccation of the Aral Sea on the Central Asian Dust Life‐Cycle

2022

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The formation of the Aralkum (Aral Desert), following the severe desiccation of the former Aral Sea since the 1960s, has created what may be regarded as one of the world's most significant anthropogenic dust sources. In this paper, focusing on dust emission and transport patterns from the Aralkum, the dust life‐cycle has been simulated over Central Asia using the aerosol transport model COSMO‐MUSCAT (COnsortium for Small‐scale MOdelling‐MUltiScale Chemistry Aerosol Transport Model), making use of the Global Surface Water data set to take into account the sensitivity to changes in surface water coverage over the region between the 1980s (the “past”) and the 2010s (the “present”). Over a case study 1‐year period, the simulated dust emissions from the Aralkum region increased from 14.3 to 27.1 Tg year−1 between the past and present, an increase driven solely by the changes in the surface water environment. Of these simulated modern emissions, 14.5 Tg are driven by westerly winds, indicating that regions downwind to the east may be worst affected by Aralkum dust. However a high degree of interannual variability in the prevailing surface wind patterns ensures that these transport patterns of Aralkum dust do not occur every year. Frequent cloud cover poses substantial challenges for observations of Central Asian dust: in the Aralkum, over two‐thirds of the yearly emissions are emitted under overcast skies, dust which may be impossible to observe using traditional satellite or ground‐based passive remote sensing techniques. Furthermore, it is apparent that the pattern of dust transport from the Aralkum under clear‐sky conditions is not representative of the pattern under all‐sky conditions.

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Section: Other Desiccating Lakes In Central Asia and The Middle Eastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of the Desiccation of the Aral Sea on the Central Asian Dust Life‐Cycle

2022

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“…In Urmia Basin, the annual mean number of dust days was highest in Tabriz compared to the other stations in this region. The synoptic wind pattern during dust events is mostly southwesterly, and therefore, the downwind Tabriz station is mostly affected by the local/regional dust emissions originating from the dried Urmia playas [32,46]. In the stations around Bakhtegan Lake, the annual mean number of dust days was highest in Shiraz and Fasa.…”

Section: Synoptic Weather Station Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the recent drought events in the Middle East region [24,42] have had a significant effect on the drying up of Bakhtegan Lake, the excessive consumption of water and the withdrawal of underground aquifers, illegal and unauthorized drilling of agricultural wells, and destruction and seizure of national lands had a significant impact on the dryness of the lake [43][44][45]. Urmia Lake is the largest lake in Iran that has mostly been transformed into a dried lake bed in the last two decades [46,47]. The main reasons for the lake's desiccation are various anthropogenic activities, which can explain around 80% of the dryness, while the remaining 20% is due to climatic factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Importance of Wind Simulations over Dried Lake Beds for Dust Emissions in the Middle East

Hamzeh,

Abadi,

Kaskaoutis

et al. 2023

Atmosphere

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Dust storms are one of the major environmental hazards affecting the Middle East countries, and largely originate in vast deserts and narrow dried lake beds. This study analyzes the inter-annual variation in dust weather conditions from 2000 to 2020 using data obtained from ten meteorological stations located around dried (completely or partly) lakes in Northwest (Urmia Lake) and South (Bakhtegan Lake) Iran. Since the wind regime is one of the most important factors controlling dust emissions in the dust source areas, wind speed simulations from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model for 134,113 grid points covering the Middle East area, with a resolution of 5 km, were analyzed and compared with wind measurements at the stations around Urmia and Bakhtegan Lakes from 2005 to 2015. The analysis shows that the annual number of dust days was highly variable, presenting a significant increase at the stations around Urmia Lake during 2008–2011 and at the stations around Bakhtegan Lake in 2007–2012. Eleven years of WRF simulations of the mean diurnal wind patterns revealed that the highest 10 m wind speed occurred mostly around the local noon (12 to 15 UTC), generally coinciding with the majority of the reported dust codes within this time frame, as a result of the association between wind speed and dust emissions (dust weather conditions) around these lake basins. Consequently, accurate wind simulation has high importance for unbiased numerical prediction and forecasting of dust conditions. The comparison between the measured mean monthly 10 m wind speed and WRF-simulated 10 m wind speed revealed that the model overestimated wind data in all the stations around the Bakhtegan Lake but performed better at reconstructing the wind speeds at stations around Urmia Lake. Furthermore, notable differences were observed between measured and simulated wind directions, thus leading to uncertainties in the simulations of the dust-plume transport.

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“…For all cells and seasons, DOD LT , DOD ML , and DOD SL are calculated using dust ε profiles by the method described in [138] and the percentages of DOD LT attributable to the ML, α = DOD ML DOD LT × 100%, and to the SL (i.e., to the first 200 m AGL), β = DOD SL DOD LT × 100%. By interpolating DOD ML (taking into account H) onto the SL, we obtain the expected DOD SL = DOD ML × 200/H and the expected β = DOD SL DOD LT × 100%.…”

Section: Dust Emission Detection Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is most likely that the large DOD LT values in spring over the southern Caspian were due to transport from distant sources. Given the prevailing eastward winds in the region during this season (see [55,138]), these sources were likely to be from the deserts of the Middle East.…”

Section: The Spatial Variability Of Dust Optical Depth In the Acarmentioning

confidence: 99%

CALIOP-Based Evaluation of Dust Emissions and Long-Range Transport of the Dust from the Aral−Caspian Arid Region by 3D-Source Potential Impact (3D-SPI) Method

et al. 2023

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The average monthly profiles of the dust extinction coefficient (ε) were analyzed according to the CALIOP lidar data from 2006–2021 for 24 cells (size of 2° × 5°) in the Aral-Caspian arid region (ACAR; 38–48°N, 50–70°E). Using the NOAA HYSPLIT_4 trajectory model and the NCEP GDAS1 gridded (resolution of 1° × 1°) archive of meteorological data, the array of >1 million 10-day forward trajectories (FTs) of air particles that started from the centers of the ACAR cells was calculated. On the basis of the FT array, the average seasonal heights of the mixed layer (ML) for the ACAR cells were reconstructed. Estimates of the average seasonal dust optical depth (DOD) were obtained for ACAR’s lower troposphere, for ACAR’s ML (“dust emission layer” (EL)), and for the lower troposphere above the ML (“dust transit layer” (TL)) above each of the ACAR cells. Using the example of ACAR, it is shown that the analysis of DOD for the EL, TL and the surface layer (SL; the first 200 m AGL) makes it possible to identify dusty surfaces that are not detected on DOD diagrams for the entire atmospheric column, as well as regions where the regular transport of aged dust from remote sources can generate false sources. Based on FT array, the fields of the potential contribution of both the ACAR’s dust transit and the ACAR’s dust emission layers as well as of the entire ACAR’s lower troposphere into the DOD of the surrounding and remote regions are retrieved using the original method of potential impact of a three-dimensional source (3D-PSI). It has been found out that ACAR dust spreads over almost the entire Northern Hemisphere; the south and southeast regions of the ACAR are subject to the maximum impact of the ACAR dust. Quantitative estimates of the potential contribution of ACAR dust to the regional DODs are given for a number of control sites in the Northern Hemisphere. The results could be useful for climatological studies.

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Long-Term Investigation of Aerosols in the Urmia Lake Region in the Middle East by Ground-Based and Satellite Data in 2000–2021

Cited by 18 publications

References 83 publications

Impacts of the Desiccation of the Aral Sea on the Central Asian Dust Life‐Cycle

Impacts of the Desiccation of the Aral Sea on the Central Asian Dust Life‐Cycle

The Importance of Wind Simulations over Dried Lake Beds for Dust Emissions in the Middle East

CALIOP-Based Evaluation of Dust Emissions and Long-Range Transport of the Dust from the Aral−Caspian Arid Region by 3D-Source Potential Impact (3D-SPI) Method

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