Background: Dust storms and their impacts on health are becoming a major public health issue. The current study examines the health impacts of dust storms around the world to provide an overview of this issue. Method: In this systematic review, 140 relevant and authoritative English articles on the impacts of dust storms on health (up to September 2019) were identified and extracted from 28 968 articles using valid keywords from various databases (PubMed, WOS, EMBASE, and Scopus) and multiple screening steps. Selected papers were then qualitatively examined and evaluated. Evaluation results were summarized using an Extraction Table. Results: The results of the study are divided into two parts: short and long-term impacts of dust storms. Short-term impacts include mortality, visitation, emergency medical dispatch, hospitalization, increased symptoms, and decreased pulmonary function. Long-term impacts include pregnancy, cognitive difficulties, and birth problems. Additionally, this study shows that dust storms have devastating impacts on health, affecting cardiovascular and respiratory health in particular. Conclusion: The findings of this study show that dust storms have significant public health impacts. More attention should be paid to these natural hazards to prepare for, respond to, and mitigate these hazardous events to reduce their negative health impacts. Registration: PROSPERO registration number CRD42018093325
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are narrow pathways of atmospheric humidity which have a critical role in the global water cycle and can affect natural phenomena such as severe storms and floods. In this article, their temporal and spatial changes in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region have been investigated during a period of 30 years . After extracting the days with ARs, their frequency and sources were identified. In order to study the formation and moisture feeding mechanism of the ARs, the jet stream and atmospheric stream maps were produced, and their sources and movement paths were identified. The results showed that each year, about 13 ARs were observed and most of them occurred in the fall and winter seasons. The major reason for the formation of ARs is jet streams which, in all selected cases, were located about 100-150 hPa above the ARs. Most ARs originated over the North Atlantic Ocean and entered Africa from Mauritania and Senegal and after passing Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran entered Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Red Sea is a major moisture source which feeds ARs on their path. The results showed that the ARs in the MENA region experience convergence over this region which causes these events to narrow. A large number of the countries that studied is desert, the findings can be utilized in understanding the ways ARs can be useful and shortage of water resources in the region can be compensated.
Sudanese systems are low-pressure thermal systems which originate from the Red Sea and their lowpressure isoheights are detectable around south of the Red Sea, Sudan and Ethiopia. These systems when combined with Mediterranean troughs in cold seasons, and absorbing more humidity from the Red Sea, reach the south west of Iran and result in heavy rainfalls in western, southwestern and southern parts of Iran. In all these synoptic-dynamic systems, low-pressure isobars or low isoheights are considerable. 11 severe torrents which happened in southwest of Iran (1998Iran ( -2008 are selected and using Japanese ReAnalysis data (JRA25), anomalies of dynamic and thermodynamic indices 2 days prior to the start of heavy rainfalls and during rainy days have been analyzed. The selected indices in this research are relative vorticity, convergence and divergence, vorticity advection, specific humidity and moisture advection. Pressure levels of 500 and 700 were analyzed to detect the location of troughs, vorticity and vertical wind velocity. Also level of 1000 hPa was investigated to determine the atmospheric convergence in near surface levels. It should be mentioned that to determine the advection of moisture, vertical profile of moisture advection (1000-250 hPa levels) was analyzed. According to the results of this research and analyzing 6-hourly recorded rainfall amounts, it is understood that in the reference events, before the start of the torrent, geopotential height values in the under-studied region decrease and at the time of maximum rainfalls, the geopotential height reaches to its lowest values and by the end of the torrent, the values start increasing; whereas parameters related to convergence and vertical movements, such as relative vorticity, moisture advection, convergence of moisture and specific humidity amounts correspond to the same trend of rainfall from the beginning to the end.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.