Present Situations of Dust Storms in Iran for Seeking Numerical Predictions

Abstract

Dust storms originate from drylands and bring hazards and dramatic socio-economic impacts. This paper reviews the impacts of this phenomenon on human health, pollution of air, and socio-economic situations by focusing on susceptible areas to dust and sandstorms in Iran. It provides a short review of the dust and sandstorm phenomenon and the process of dust emissions. In addition, it reviews possible sources of dust and sandstorms inside Iran's borders and concludes that it originates from dried bed lakes which are located inside Iran. To consider the countermeasures of the hazardous effects of the dust storms, accurate prediction methods are required to be developed with plausible physical models describing the sand transport phenomenon with the association of mesoscale atmospheric predictions models. Accordingly, case studies employing atmospheric numerical simulation models were discussed. This study highlights the importance of the numerical predictions of dust storms that frequently occur in Iran.