Identification Of Active Dust Sources Using Remote Sensing Data And Air Flow Simulation (Case Study: Alborz Province)

Dust is one of the natural hazards that occurs mainly in arid and semi-arid area of the world that is one of the major problem in Iran. In this paper, identification active sources of dust generation in Alborz province using satellite images and numerical modeling to predict airflow is discussed. LANDSAT 8 satellite sensor (OLI) (from 2013 to 2015) and digital elevation models (DEMs) from the ASTER were received to produce masks of non-erodible surface and by using vegetation, moisture, roughness indices and images classification those area separated from other areas. Also using field based dust data and HYSPLIT model (normal 5.0 degrees), air flow path in all dust events in 2013 and 2015 was simulated and local dust event was determined. By applying the HYSPILIT matrix model, for local events and specify location of the back flow of air to the ground, raster images events based on the level of dust was produced. The masks of non-erodible surface were used on these images and WLC MCE approach was used to finalize map of active dust sources. The results showed that the combination of remote sensing and numerical simulation methods and field based data could well show active dust sources.