[1] We investigate the triggering mechanism of a crossequatorial dust storm observed by Mars Global Surveyor in 1999. This storm, which had a significant impact on global mean temperatures, was seen in visible and infrared data to commence with the transport of linear dust fronts from the northern high latitudes into the southern tropics. However, other similar transport events observed in nort...

there are many reports of serious problems of dust storm events in the western parts of iran. based on many researches, iraq is one of the main sources of dust storms in western parts of iran. the radial basis function network (rbfn) model has been used to assess wind erosion hazard in iraq as a main source area of dust storms over several western cities of iran. the percentage of vegetation is...

In this study, data provided by the geostationary satellite GMS-5 S-VISSR was used to monitor dust storms. Although other satellites, such as TOMS, provide information regarding dust cover and air quality over specific locations, their limited orbital observation time makes it hard to issue real-time warnings for dust storms. Since geostationary satellites are capable of providing hourly observ...

Please cite this article in press as: Hinson, D.P., W Mars. Icarus (2009), doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.0 We have investigated the near-surface meteorology in the northern hemisphere of Mars through detailed analysis of data obtained with Mars Global Surveyor in January–August 2005. The season in the northern hemisphere ranged from midsummer through winter solstice of Mars Year (MY) 27. We examine...

[1] Climate forcing by mineral dust aerosols is one of the most uncertain processes in our current understanding of climate change. The main natural sources of dust aerosols are blowing dust, dust devils, and dust storms. Electric fields larger than 100 kV/m have been measured in these phenomena. Theoretical calculations and laboratory experiments show that these electric fields produce electri...

Water scarcity is one of the factors limiting plant growth and development. More than onethird of the global terrestrial ecosystems is located in arid and semi-arid regions. The mostimportant limiting factor for plant growth is water shortage. Drought could significantlychange the natural vegetation cover. Rainfall reduction in Iraq, Turkey and Syria hasreduced vegetation cover so that dust sto...

The simulations and potential forecasting of dust storms are of significant interest to public health and environment sciences. Dust storms have interannual variabilities and are typical disruptive events. The computing platform for a dust storm forecasting operational system should support a disruptive fashion by scaling up to enable high-resolution forecasting and massive public access when d...

An operational model for the forecast of dust storms in Northern Africa, the Middle East and Southwest Asia has been developed for the United States Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA). The dust forecast model uses the 5th generation Penn State Mesoscale Meteorology Model (MM5) as input to the University of Colorado CARMA dust transport model. AFWA undertook a 60 day evaluation of the effectiveness...