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Regional Dust Storm Trend and Dust Source Areas Contribution to PM10 Concentrations in Iran

Givehchi, Raheleh | 2011

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 42239 (09)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Civil Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Arhami, Mohammad; Tajrishy, Masoud
  7. Abstract:
  8. Several dust storms originated from western countries deserts of Iran hit different cities in Iran and substantially elevates PM10 levels. To the date, some studies on trend and origin of the dust storm have been carried out. However, not enough information is available on the contribution of different deserts around the country to the aerosol concentration in Iranian cities. In this study, the deserts of potential dust sources have been identified and their contributions to PM10 concentration in Tehran have been investigated. The PM10 data collected over a 5 year period from 2006 to 2010 at monitoring stations in Tehran were used. A statistical approach was implemented in order to determine the trend and characteristics of aerosol levels at each site. Occurrence of dust outbreaks was detected with the previous statistical tool, coupled with the information from the TOMS-NASA aerosol index and MODIS maps. The intensity and trend of dust storms and their effect on measured PM10 at receptor sites were determined. The Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model (HYSPLIT) has been used to determine the proportions of dust originated from deserts in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran in the dusty periods of 2009 and 2010. Daily back trajectories were calculated at receptor points during dust outbreaks in order to find and confirm the potential sources. After the model was configured and the potential sources were all detected, the model has been run for individual scenarios to find the contribution of desert dust and each possible contributor area to the PM10 levels measured at the monitoring stations. The whole region is divided into 5 regions like: region1: Oman, emirates; region2: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait; region3: Yemen; region4: Iraq, Saurian west; and region5: Israel, Jordan, Saurian east, Lebanon. The results have shown that Iraq and Syria deserts are the main sources dust contributing in Tehran that contain 90 percent of the dust in Tehran. In addition, the deserts of north of Iraq and east of Syria have the 44% and 32% of the total dust contribution respectively.

  9. Keywords:
  10. Air Pollution ; Dust ; Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT)Model ; TOMS Satellite Imagery

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