Dust Storms Chemical Elements Estimation and Density Identification Using MODIS Images and CALIPSO Data

Dust storms are atmospheric phenomena with negative environmental effects and especially for human health. Sampling and analysis of physical and chemical composition of recent dusts show that they are not merely composed of dust, gravel, sand and salt particles, rather they are of complex combination of chemical elements. Metals such as soil alkaline metals, carbon, silica, aluminum, potassium, calcium and other organic components are observed that all these elements can have harmful effects on public health. In this study, Ahwaz where during last decades has seen several storms was studied. Using collected samples in the ground station and laboratory analyses dust contents were determined for seven dust events. For use of remote sensing technology using satellite images in order to identify the elements of dust, MODIS satellite images were used. Using MODIS images, the least squares method and cross-validation modeling, the relationship between MODIS bands and the results and measured chemical contents of dusts were created. Results show that silica, can be estimated from the ratio of 21 band to 26 with RMS 1.28. For aluminum, the ratio bands 25 to 26 with RMSE 2.08, for calcium the ratio of bands 24 to 25 with RMSE 2.3, for sodium of the ratio of bands 23 to 27 with RMSE 0.48 and finally for Magnesium the ratio of bands 15 to 24 with 0.78 RMSE are useful indexes to identify these elements using MODIS satellite images. According to the results MODIS images are useful for dust storms chemical elements estimation. Also using CALIPSO data, the rate of concentration and intensity of dust particles at the height of 6 km/asl are.