Loading...

Newly desertified regions in Iraq and its surrounding areas: Significant novel sources of global dust particles

Moridnejad, A ; Sharif University of Technology | 2015

673 Viewed
  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2015.01.008
  3. Publisher: Academic Press , 2015
  4. Abstract:
  5. Using the newly developed Middle East Dust Index (MEDI) applied to MODIS satellite data, we consider a relationship between the recent desertified regions, over the past three decades, and the dust source points identified during the period of 2001-2012. Results indicate that major source points are located in Iraq and Syria, and by implementing the spectral mixture analysis on the Landsat TM images (1984 and 2012), a novel desertification map was extracted. Results of this study indicate for the first time that c.a., 39% of all detected source points are located in this newly anthropogenically desertified area. Using extracted indices for Deep Blue algorithm, dust sources were classified into three levels of intensity: low, medium, and high. A large number of low frequency sources are located within or close to the newly desertified areas. These severely desertified regions require immediate concern at a global scale
  6. Keywords:
  7. Desertification ; Dust storm ; Middle East ; Source identification ; Algorithm ; Anthropogenic effect ; Landsat thematic mapper ; MODIS ; Satellite data ; Iraq ; Syrian Arab Republic
  8. Source: Journal of Arid Environments ; Volume 116 , May , 2015 , Pages 1-10 ; 01401963 (ISSN)
  9. URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140196315000099