Detecting dust and analyzing its effect on Modis satellite photos: A case study of the city of Zabol

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Msc Student Water Resources Management in Water Engineering Department, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Science and Water Engineering, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

3 Msc student water resources management in water engineering Department, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

Abstract

Air pollution is one of the serious environmental problems in cities. In recent years in Iran, this problem has extended in large areas. Zabol County is a major source of this phenomenon, which is because of its special geomorphological situation and climate. In this research, due to many dust occurrences in Zabul County, the area is selected as the study area. Considering the occurrence of maximum dust in summer, especially from 22 of June to 23 of August, four dates are chosen for evaluation. They include August 12, 2017, July 5, 2018, July 26, 2018, and August 12, 2018. So, images of MODIS satellite sensor were taken, and then two dust indicators (Ackerman and TDI) were applied to images. Finally, their results and results of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were compared. The results showed that, in the four evaluated events, the best performance belonged to the TDI index; with regard to the real amount of dust, this index provided better and more acceptable results in the study area.Also, the evaluation of the image accuracy showed that the TDI index could detect dust more accurately. This index suggested that, in the four evaluated events, high-intensity dust occurred in the east and north east of the study area. Moreover, the NDVI map showed a direct relationship between ambient vegetation and dust as well as poor vegetation with severe dust. 

Keywords


 
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