Identification of Dust corridors of south-west of Iran (Case study: dust on June 19, 2012)

Dust phenomenon is of natural processes in arid and semi-arid regions of the world which damages various parts very much annually. South West of Iran is exposed to this phenomenon continuously due to being in the arid and semi-arid belt of the world. In this research to determine the dust corridors, One of high dust concentration events (19 June 2012) was chosen and dust detection method of DUST RGB was applied on the MODIS images of the day when dust happened and a day before and after that. and on the basis of DUST RGB time-series images of dust, the corridors of this event was determined and this images compared and validated with DUST RGB products of METEOSAT satellite (sensor of SEVIRI). Also, in order to complete the analysis, numerical HYSPLIT model to determine dust corridors was used. Finally three main dust corridors consisting of North West – South East, South – North and West – East to the South West of Iran were specified. The results of this study demonstrated that MODIS images can identify the dust and its corridors on the condition that the visual range of images are appropriate and if they are not cloudy. but in order to determine the corridors exactly and complete the analysis, other kinds of information such as numerical meteorology models beside remote sensing data