Analyses of a Lake Dust Source in the Middle East through Models Performance

Drying lakes have become a new source of dust, causing severe problems in surrounding areas. From 2000 to 2017, statistical study was conducted on Lake Urmia Iran the Middle East. The results indicated significant increase annual number dusty days stations around lake and mean aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 550 nm. sharp decrease snowfall rate over area since 2007 has been linked lake’s decreasing water level drying. During dust storm event from 27 October 31 local originated before another large-scale An-Nafud desert. According MODIS true-color images, particles were lifted transported eastward Caspian Sea HYSPLIT model. comparison four models under Sand Dust Storm Warning Advisory Assessment System (SDS-WAS) revealed that overestimated surface concentrations compared ground-based PM10 measurements. Nevertheless, NOAA/WRF-Chem DREAMABOL simulated higher during period. More emphasis should be placed development for SDS-WAS Urmia.