Abstract:
Dried lake beds are some of the largest sources of dust in the world and have caused
environmental problems in the surrounding areas in recent decades. In the present work, we studied
the monthly and annual occurrence of dust storms at selected weather stations around Urmia Lake in
northwestern (NW) Iran. Furthermore, we investigated the variations in the daily aerosol optical
depth (AOD at 550 nm) and the Ångström exponent (at 412/470 nm), as well as the vertical profile
of the total aerosol extinction coefficient and AOD at 532 nm, using space-borne MODIS (Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Aqua and CALIPSO Satellite LiDAR data over the Urmia
Lake region (36–39◦N, 44–47◦E). The monthly variations of AOD550 and AOD532 for the regions
37–39◦N and 46–59◦E were compared, and it was found that the CALIPSO AOD532 and MODIS
AOD532 (reconstructed using the Ångström exponent) were in good agreement. In general, the dust
storms during 2000–2021 increased the AOD550 above average around the Urmia Lake. The vertical
profile of aerosols showed that the largest contribution to total aerosol loading over the Urmia Lake
was from 1.5–3 km, 1.5–4 km, 1.5–5 km, and 1.5–3 km during winter, spring, summer, and autumn
seasons, respectively.
