Climatology of the Sistan Levar wind: Atmospheric dynamics driving its onset, duration and withdrawal

Hamidianpour, Mohsen; Jahanshahi, Seyed Mahdi Amir; Kaskaoutis, Dimitris G.; Rashki, Alireza; Nastos, Panagiotis G.

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2021.105711

Cited by 30 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 100 publications

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“…Moreover, the role of human activity may play a more important role if there is a windy year or period in the future owing to the interannual or decadal climate variability. Caution should also be taken when extending our assessment to other dust source regions of the world where the ecological restoration is also of high interest 44 , and we suggest that a similar assessment be done as in this study but with the regional characteristics taken into account 45 , 46 . On the other hand, due to the impacts of dust transport and deposition, the benefits of reduced dust emission in alleviating dust pollution may vary in different regions and should be assessed with the full consideration of dust transport and deposition 20 – 23 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Drivers of recent decline in dust activity over East Asia

Lin

Shao

et al. 2022

Nat Commun

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It is essential to understand the factors driving the recent decline of dust activity in East Asia for future dust projections. Using a physically-based dust emission model, here we show that the weakening of surface wind and the increasing of vegetation cover and soil moisture have all contributed to the decline in dust activity during 2001 to 2017. The relative contributions of these three factors to the dust emission reduction during 2010–2017 relative to 2001 are 46%, 30%, and 24%, respectively. Much (78%) of the dust emission reduction is from barren lands, and a small fraction (4.6%) of the reduction is attributed to grassland vegetation increase that is partly ascribed to the ecological restoration. This suggests that the ecological restoration plays a minor role in the decline of dust activity. Rather, the decline is mainly driven by climatic factors, with the weakening of surface wind playing the dominant role.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Drivers of recent decline in dust activity over East Asia

Lin

Shao

et al. 2022

Nat Commun

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“…It is characteristic that during 1999-2002, the dust days were less over SW Iran (except of 2000), while at the same time, east and southeast Iran faced the largest frequency of dust events due to prolonged drought conditions, driven by large-scale dynamics and the prolonged La-Nina phase [34,126,127]. This indicates that local, regional, and large-scale meteorological dynamics that modulate dust activity over the west-southwest and east parts of Iran are totally different, as also shown by recent works that examined the atmospheric circulation patterns and local winds over these areas [64,128]. Figure 3a shows the annual variation of the common dust days in all stations, thus revealing dust plumes covering the whole region.…”

Section: Evolution Of Dust Days In Sw Iranmentioning

confidence: 88%

Long-Term Variability of Dust Events in Southwestern Iran and Its Relationship with the Drought

et al. 2021

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Dust storms represent a major environmental challenge in the Middle East. The southwest part of Iran is highly affected by dust events transported from neighboring desert regions, mostly from the Iraqi plains and Saudi Arabia, as well as from local dust storms. This study analyzes the spatio-temporal distribution of dust days at five meteorological stations located in southwestern Iran covering a period of 22 years (from 1997 to 2018). Dust codes (06, 07, 30 to 35) from meteorological observations are analyzed at each station, indicating that 84% of the dust events are not of local origin. The average number of dust days maximizes in June and July (188 and 193, respectively), while the dust activity weakens after August. The dust events exhibit large inter-annual variability, with statistically significant increasing trends in all of five stations. Spatial distributions of the aerosol optical depth (AOD), dust loading, and surface dust concentrations from a moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2) retrievals reveal high dust accumulation over southwest Iran and surrounding regions. Furthermore, the spatial distribution of the (MODIS)-AOD trend (%) over southwest Iran indicates a large spatial heterogeneity during 2000–2018 with trends ranging mostly between −9% and 9% (not statistically significant). 2009 was the most active dust year, followed by 2011 and 2008, due to prolonged drought conditions in the fertile crescent and the enhanced dust emissions in the Iraqi plains during this period. In these years, the AOD was much higher than the 19-year average (2000 to 2018), while July 2009 was the dustiest month with about 25–30 dust days in each station. The years with highest dust activity were associated with less precipitation, negative anomalies of the vegetation health index (VHI) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) over the Iraqi plains and southwest Iran, and favorable meteorological dynamics triggering stronger winds.

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“…days" winds blowing with great intensity from mid-May to mid-September (Hamidianpour et al, 2021). Warmer conditions and desertification over Central Asia can affect the Caspian Sea High that mostly modulates the Levar wind and dust activity, hence influencing the weather and climate forcing (Li et al, 2021).…”

Section: Accepted Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Changes in pressure gradients between the Caspian Sea and the Hindu Kush-Pamir mountainous range may strongly affect the wind regime and dust activity over the eastern parts of Iran (Kaskaoutis et al, 2016(Kaskaoutis et al, , 2017. This area is strongly affected by the Levar seasonal or "120-days" winds blowing with great intensity from mid-May to mid-September (Hamidianpour et al, 2021). Warmer conditions and desertification over Central Asia can affect the Caspian Sea High that mostly modulates the Levar wind and dust activity, hence influencing the weather and climate forcing (Li et al, 2021).…”

Section: The Interplay Between Atmospheric Composition and Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change and Weather Extremes in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East

Zittis

Almazroui

Alpert

et al. 2022

Reviews of Geophysics

164

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 The Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East region is warming almost two times faster than the global average and more rapidly than other inhabited parts of the world. Climate projections indicate a future warming that is particularly strong in the summer, associated with unprecedented heat extremes. Total precipitation will likely decrease in many regions, particularly in the eastern Mediterranean. Virtually all socio-economic sectors will be critically affected by the projected changes.

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Climatology of the Sistan Levar wind: Atmospheric dynamics driving its onset, duration and withdrawal

Cited by 30 publications

References 100 publications

Drivers of recent decline in dust activity over East Asia

Drivers of recent decline in dust activity over East Asia

Long-Term Variability of Dust Events in Southwestern Iran and Its Relationship with the Drought

Climate Change and Weather Extremes in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East

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