Abstract Dust storms are considered as one of the most important environmental challenges in the West Asia region. In addition to the harmful impacts of dust storms on human health, they also have particular effects on socioeconomic and agroecological domains of human communities. Identify the sources of dust storms is the first step to combat against these devastating phenomena. Accordingly, the present study was conducted to determine dust sources of the Tigris and Euphrates basin using satellite and climatic data. Monthly LST and NDVI of MODIS, monthly wind speed, soil moisture, and absolute air humidity data from GLDAS, monthly TRMM precipitation, and soil texture data of FAO were used. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model was applied to determine the weights of the collected data (i.e. criteria or drivers for dust storms formation). Susceptible Areas to Dust Storm Formation (SADSF) were determined using the Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) model for months of June, July, and August from 2000 to 2017. After performing SADSF analysis, five main dust sources were identified in the whole basin. To evaluate the accuracy of the results, the number of real Observed Dust Storms (ODS) in each source was compared to the repetition of allocation in SADSF for each pixel over the 18-year period of this study from 2000 to 2017. Results indicated that the area of SADSF has significantly grown for all three months since 2008. The areas of SADSF in June and July were almost the same, while they were significantly bigger than August. Among identified dust sources, the highest SADSF repetition was in the northwest of Iraq followed by eastern Syria, southern Iraq, southeast border of Iraq, and east border of Iraq, respectively. The correlation coefficient between the SADSF repetition with the number of ODS events in those recognized dust sources was equal to 0.88, 0.76, and 0.74 for June, July, and August, respectively, that shows the accuracy of our results in comparison to actual data.

中文翻译：

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使用长期卫星和气候数据识别沙尘源：以底格里斯河和幼发拉底河盆地为例

摘要 沙尘暴被认为是西亚地区最重要的环境挑战之一。除了沙尘暴对人类健康的有害影响外，它们还对人类社区的社会经济和农业生态领域产生特殊影响。确定沙尘暴的来源是对抗这些破坏性现象的第一步。因此，本研究旨在利用卫星和气候数据确定底格里斯河和幼发拉底河流域的灰尘来源。使用 MODIS 的月 LST 和 NDVI、GLDAS 的月风速、土壤水分和绝对空气湿度数据、TRMM 月降水量和 FAO 的土壤质地数据。应用层次分析法 (AHP) 模型来确定所收集数据的权重（即沙尘暴形成的标准或驱动因素）。使用加权线性组合 (WLC) 模型确定了 2000 年至 2017 年 6 月、7 月和 8 月的沙尘暴形成易感区域 (SADSF)。在执行 SADSF 分析后，在整个流域中确定了五个主要沙尘源。为了评估结果的准确性，在本研究从 2000 年到 2017 年的 18 年期间，将每个源中实际观测到的沙尘暴 (ODS) 数量与 SADSF 中每个像素的重复分配进行了比较。 结果表明自 2008 年以来，SADSF 的面积在所有三个月中都有显着增长。SADSF 的面积在 6 月和 7 月几乎相同，但明显大于 8 月。在确定的沙尘源中，SADSF 重复率最高的是伊拉克西北部，其次是叙利亚东部、伊拉克南部、伊拉克东南边界、和伊拉克东部边境。6 月、7 月和 8 月 SADSF 重复与那些已识别沙尘源中 ODS 事件数量之间的相关系数分别等于 0.88、0.76 和 0.74，这表明我们的结果与实际数据相比的准确性。