Local and Long-Range Transport Dust Storms Over the City of Ahvaz: A Survey Based on Spatiotemporal and Geometrical Properties

Particulate matter (PM) represents a criteria air pollutant (CAP) influencing health, climate, cloud properties, economy, agriculture, and the environment. Numerous studies on this subject have classified dust events based on wind speed, visibility, and PM10 levels. The purpose of this study was to evaluate PM10 with a wider range of meteorological parameters and CAPs during different dust storms. Moreover, spatiotemporal and geometrical properties of dust storms were analyzed over the city of Ahvaz between 2012 and 2015. Meteorological parameters included those obtained from the Iran Meteorological Organization (IMO) as well as CAPs from the Ahvaz Environmental Protection Organization (AEPO). During the study period, 68 dust storms were investigated, with sources identified by the AEPO. The highest levels of PM10 were 2877.2, 1327, 2146, 2094, and 1218 µg m−3 during local storms (LS), dusts from Iraq (DI), dust from both sources (DBS), and 1 and 2-peak dust events, respectively. The criteria levels of wind speed, relative humidity, and air temperature also shifted 3 h forward when the severity of dust storms decreased and their durations increased. Strong correlation coefficients (R2) were observed between PM2.5 and PM10 ranging from 0.88 to 0.95 for dust storms falling within each of the five classifications. The highest ascending and the lowest descending slopes belonged to dusts from DBS (600.3 µg m−3 h−1) and DI (73 µg m−3 h−1), respectively. These results have relevance to planning and mitigation strategies for combating different types of dust storms in Ahvaz.