Abstract

In the last few years, the dust storms which head from Iraq to Iran have become a bio-environmental problem for the residents in West and South West Iran. Apparently, the temperature changes in the study area trigger these dust storms, and in the meantime, the decrease in the water level of Euphrates river and its adjacent lakes are the main culprits that intensify the storms. This assumption was investigated using remote sensing. In order to study land surface temperature and water level changes in the Euphrates and the lakes in the region, the thermal band-band 6 and staking of bands 5, 4 and 3 of Landsat 5 were utilized, respectively. According to the Landsat covering the study area, it was divided into three parts that include Syria (Area 1), Boundary (Iraq and Syria, Area 2) and East of Bagdad deserts (Area 3). The results showed that the temperature changes in various periods in Areas 1, 2 and 3 increased from 43.5 to 50, 40.5 to 49 and 28 to 46, respectively. Comparing the satellite, images recorded from 2003 to 2009 showed a high decrease in water level in the Euphrates and the lakes in its vicinity. This study, moreover, showed that the influence of land surfaces temperature and moisture changes might create dust storms indicating that remote sensing is a useful tool in large scale and international level studies.

Key words: Variation of heat and moisture, dust storm, remote sensing, Euphrates, Iran.