The Importance of Wind Simulations over Dried Lake Beds for Dust Emissions in the Middle East
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 statio...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Atmosphere |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/15/1/24 |
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| author | Nasim Hossein Hamzeh Abbas Ranjbar Saadat Abadi Dimitris G. Kaskaoutis Ebrahim Mirzaei Karim Abdukhakimovich Shukurov Rafaella-Eleni P. Sotiropoulou Efthimios Tagaris |
| author_facet | Nasim Hossein Hamzeh Abbas Ranjbar Saadat Abadi Dimitris G. Kaskaoutis Ebrahim Mirzaei Karim Abdukhakimovich Shukurov Rafaella-Eleni P. Sotiropoulou Efthimios Tagaris |
| author_sort | Nasim Hossein Hamzeh |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T11:06:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1ce65dc4247147fa818ad563314e292c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4433 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T11:06:02Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Atmosphere |
| spelling | doaj.art-1ce65dc4247147fa818ad563314e292c2024-01-26T15:01:24ZengMDPI AGAtmosphere2073-44332023-12-011512410.3390/atmos15010024The Importance of Wind Simulations over Dried Lake Beds for Dust Emissions in the Middle EastNasim Hossein Hamzeh0Abbas Ranjbar Saadat Abadi1Dimitris G. Kaskaoutis2Ebrahim Mirzaei3Karim Abdukhakimovich Shukurov4Rafaella-Eleni P. Sotiropoulou5Efthimios Tagaris6Department Meteorology, Air and Climate Technology Company (ACTC), Tehran 15996-16313, IranDepartment of Meteorology, Atmospheric Science & Meteorological Research Center (ASMERC), Tehran 14977-16385, IranDepartment of Chemical Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, 50100 Kozani, GreeceDepartment of Meteorology, Atmospheric Science & Meteorological Research Center (ASMERC), Tehran 14977-16385, IranA.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119017 Moscow, RussiaDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, 50100 Kozani, GreeceDepartment of Chemical Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, 50100 Kozani, GreeceDust 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.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/15/1/24wind speeddust eventsdried lake bedaerosol optical depthWRF modelIran |
| spellingShingle | Nasim Hossein Hamzeh Abbas Ranjbar Saadat Abadi Dimitris G. Kaskaoutis Ebrahim Mirzaei Karim Abdukhakimovich Shukurov Rafaella-Eleni P. Sotiropoulou Efthimios Tagaris The Importance of Wind Simulations over Dried Lake Beds for Dust Emissions in the Middle East Atmosphere wind speed dust events dried lake bed aerosol optical depth WRF model Iran |
| title | The Importance of Wind Simulations over Dried Lake Beds for Dust Emissions in the Middle East |
| title_full | The Importance of Wind Simulations over Dried Lake Beds for Dust Emissions in the Middle East |
| title_fullStr | The Importance of Wind Simulations over Dried Lake Beds for Dust Emissions in the Middle East |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Importance of Wind Simulations over Dried Lake Beds for Dust Emissions in the Middle East |
| title_short | The Importance of Wind Simulations over Dried Lake Beds for Dust Emissions in the Middle East |
| title_sort | importance of wind simulations over dried lake beds for dust emissions in the middle east |
| topic | wind speed dust events dried lake bed aerosol optical depth WRF model Iran |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/15/1/24 |
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